Handle ID: Angel
by Hidden Relevance
Summary: Relive Oldavai through the eyes of RRTS's only female member. Note: Rating has gone up as Angel's language has gotten worse the longer the story progresses lol. Also, extreme violence and raunchy goodness. COMPLETE
1. Sound Reasoning

**(Note: I own nothing besides the plotbunny that spawned this.)**

**I have absolutely no excuse for this fic beyond the fact that the mini-plotbunny fairly clawed its way into my head, and wouldn't leave. **

**:EDIT TAKE TWO: So I read back through this first chapter and had the epiphany that, while amusing as a one shot, it made next to no sense as the first chapter of a longer fic. So I've done some minor editing to make it make more sense. That's it really lol.**

**:EDIT: So, the delightful Askita has bribed me with whiskey and betalove to continue this into the longer fic I'd imagined! Note, it will definitely be a Self Insertion type fic, but I'm out to make her into an "Everywoman" charater (See what I did in my King Arthur fic Gentled for an example) so that each of my readers can imagine themselves as our Reaper's honey. Cuz really, who wouldn't? **

**Chapter 1 Sound Reasoning (or Creatively Avoiding the Subject of Boyfriends)**

Leave had been far too long in coming in my opinion. Though the past month or so had been relatively quiet on base, it had still been nearly 6 months since any of us had anything resembling a vacation. Hell, John's birthday bash in Vegas was probably the closest we'd gotten, and while I'd definitely enjoyed the hotel room the rest of the team hadn't known I'd shared with the birthday boy, the 24 hours off that Sarge had managed to arrange had felt more like a damn tease that a true getaway. Now though, now I was only minutes away from a solid week of R&R with John. Or I would be as soon as the damn transport arrived. The sound of an orange exploding against a locker drew my attention from the upcoming trip back to the chaos that the barracks currently were. Granted, our team wasn't the sanest or calmest on our best days, but the men were even more stir crazy than normal due to the late transport.

I just sprawled out comfortably on John's bed, rightly assuming it would be the safest place in the room considering the oranges flying around. I was counting on the fact that with his baby disassembled and spread across his desk, the boys wouldn't dare risk a home run his direction. It was a smart move on their part: John could be more than a bit protective of that gun. I had a book open, but the circus around me was far more interesting, if occasionally disturbing (Portman's comment about his she-boys was far more info than I needed.)

"What about you, Angel?" Duke yelled over, eyes still glued to his game. It was nice of him to make the effort to include me in their conversations, but to be honest, my plans were not exactly something I could share. Not entirely, anyway. "Going anywhere fun?" I had to work hard to keep myself from glancing back toward John, but I managed to answer with a straight face.

"I'm heading for a little hotel on the beach, with a large bed and an exceptionally attractive man in it."

"We talking a clothing optional beach?" Destroyer's quip got me chuckling. I grinned wickedly and stretched, allowing the rather diminutive t-shirt I wore to ride up a bit.

"Is there any other kind?" We all laughed, and I slouched again, pulling the shirt back down before John could mention it. "Seriously though, if any of you even dreams of calling and interrupting my trip, I will hurt you." I glared a bit just to make the point stick. "I'm in severe sex withdrawal, and you do not stand between an addict and her fix."

"Aww, come on Angel. It's not like you don't have plenty of opportunities here." Trust Portman to respond with his hand on his crotch; I should have seen that one coming.

"In this group? Like hell." That statement might have been a mistake, as more than just the letch seemed offended. Duke, in particular, seemed to take it personally, though he attempted to hide it with a sneer.

"There's not even one of us you'd fuck, huh?" I sat up with a sigh.

"Let's face it boys, there'd be issues no matter who it was." I started to lie back down, hoping they'd drop it.

"Oh yeah, like what?" Hopes dashed. Oh well, I decided, might as well have fun with this one.

"Shall we go through the list?"

"Sure." I shot a glare over my shoulder. John had to start paying attention now? I shook my head and turned back to the boys.

"Well, first up, we have Sarge." I saw their eyes widen and chuckled. After the first few months of the men assuming I'd been brought in to be our CO's fuck-buddy, and Sarge and I vehemently denying it, they'd finally dropped the topic. Me bringing it back up was probably something of a shock. "Frankly, that whole 'fucking your way into a promotion' thing is a little too cliché for me to go there. Besides, he's like family, and incest just isn't my kind of kink."

"How 'bout me?" Portman asked with what I guessed he meant to be a sexy grin.

"Wrong species. Next?" Over the laughter, Duke called out Destroyer's name. I shot the shy demolition man a grin.

"Boy, that would probably be a helluva lot of fun, but note: you call him _Destroyer. _I wouldn't be able to walk for a week." The big man actually grinned back at me before nodding at his baseball partner.

"What about Mac?"

I eyed the quiet Asian, thoughtfully. "It's worth considering, but… what the hell could I call him during sex?" That crack actually got me a few nods. There really were far too many syllables in the man's name.

"What about Goat, then?" Portman sneered, thinking to make a fool of someone other than himself. Goat and I only shot him incredulous looks.

"Dude… he took a vow of celibacy. How the hell did you miss that?" There was a sudden silence, as if Portman hadn't been the only one. I met Goat's gaze and we both shrugged. "O...K..."

"Why not the kid over there?" Our newest member paused his sweeping with a distinct 'deer in the headlights' look. I took pity on him.

"He's cute and all, but I'm really not ready to be a bobcat."

"A bobcat?" John's voice was incredulous, and I giggled.

"I'm not old enough to be a cougar." They all groaned at the joke.

Mac nodded over at Duke, who was trying not to look impatient. "Him?" I shook my head, knowing this one would probably sting.

"Sorry but no. We've all seen his apartment. The bedroom had a big screen and a x-box controller on the night stand _on top of _his box of condoms. There's only so much multitasking I can handle."

They all had to laugh at that, even Duke, though it came across as more than a little sheepish. After a moment, Duke asked about the last man in R.R.T.S., the one I'd been frantically trying to come up with an explanation for. Daring to glance back over my shoulder, I saw John was busily re-assembling his rifle. Ah, that was it! I swallowed a chuckle and forced my face into an innocent expression.

"Gentlemen, the love between a man and his gun is a beautiful thing… I'm just not sure I'd be able to handle the competition." The men cracked up, as I tried desperately not to laugh. "Really, I'm the jealous type, and I'd want him to spend that time stroking _me_." The room dissolved into hysterics, and I risked a look at John.

My lover wasn't laughing, only smirking slightly and leveling a look that promised I was in for _so _much trouble later. I smirked back. Finally.

**What can I say? Review if it made you giggle too!**


	2. Leave is Cancelled

**Hey look! There's another chapter, and it's longer than normal! Thank the beta askita for both those- frankly I'm enjoying this whole betaluv concept lol. **

**Again, I own nothing... Not even the DVD yet cuz shipping is being mean.** **It's a sad life. lol**

**Chapter 2: Leave has been cancelled. or Damn it, Sarge!**

I should have known Sarge would be the buzz kill on my sexy get away. The men had moved on from interrogating me to harassing John about his vacation plans; he only admitted to "doing push ups the entire trip" which very nearly caused me to swallow my tongue when I realized how likely that was to be a euphemism. Right about then, however, our fearless leader descended upon us, and informed us that leave had been canceled. While Duke's grumbling distracted the men, I shared a pained glance with John; nekkid snuggles would have to be postponed yet again.

"Angel, quarantine procedures are in effect." Sarge called, captured my full attention. My specialty, hell my reason for getting assigned to the R.R.T.S., was the study and treatment of infectious diseases. Particularly, those created for bio-warfare purposes. Considering that 'quarantine' was one of my magic words, along with 'outbreak' and 'hazmat,' I stood in a hurry.

"Current data?" I asked, already on my way to him. He shook his head.

"None at present. Full kit." I nodded and bounded up the stairs ahead of the guys, hurrying to get to the ready room and change.

My locker was one of those closest to the door, a change that had been made after a memorable altercation with one of our less than savory former teammates. He'd tried to corner me, which, needless to say, I hadn't taken well. We'd both ended up with multiple injuries by the time the rest of the team came running. While I had definitely come out on the losing side of it, I'd kept him from his actual goal, as it were, and in the mean time, left enough of a mark that most of the men hadn't wanted to tangle with me.

I pulled off my shirt, ignoring the catcalls as the men came in and got an eyeful of the slinky lingerie I'd planned to surprise John with. I could handle the catcalls: I was just glad I was actually wearing something. I switched the lacey bra for a sport top in a slick motion I'd perfected back on co-ed buses in high school. It only took a minute or two for me to finish changing, well ahead of the others.

This, frankly, was necessary as I had twice the equipment to ready. I finished tying my boots, and jogged out the door, heading to the med lab. About half of my kit was packed around the clock, ready to be shoved in various pockets on my vest and flak jacket when I headed out with one of the two or three man teams that we were usually assigned to. The full kit was another matter entirely. The full kit was, in part, a pack I'd helped design (not that I was likely to get credit for it… the military was taking full advantage of my enlistment with that one) that was not only as Kevlar lined as my vest, but also air tight, and equipped with an internal cooling system. All the alterations added to the weight of the damn thing, but in the long run, it was worth it: I'd be carrying a load of extremely nasty vaccines and blood samples for and from each member of the team, and an accident involving those two items was never fun. I packed the kit quickly, but carefully. With no data on what exactly needed to be quarantined, I made damn sure that I covered all the possibilities, not wanting anything like a repeat of the Ebola scare Goat and I had ended up in only a few months before. I ran through my mental checklist, packing the rest of my medical supplies into my vest. John was our medic, but it was always better to have more bandages than not have enough. Especially with the way our team tended to throw themselves headlong into danger. Hell, that was practically a requirement of the job.

Finally, sure I had everything I needed, I hefted the pack on, and headed out to the transport. I was gratified to find that I wasn't the last one on: Sarge and John were both still MIA. I didn't stress on it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Sarge had taken a moment with his second in command to lock in the game plan. I lifted my rifle from the wall, taking only a moment to settle her in my hands before slipping into my seat. The Kid had just discovered his new ID, and I couldn't help but laugh a bit at his less than thrilled expression. I thought about telling him that it was only one last form of hazing, and that he'd get his real ID on his second mission out, but frankly it was just too damned amusing. And hey, it could have been much worse: Sarge'd had the nerve to call me Princess, a nickname he knew I loathed with a fiery passion. 'Angel' wasn't half bad in comparison, still more than a little girly though. I leaned back in my seat and sighed.

"And the son of man shall send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom all who have done evil." I shot the man a half smile, unsurprised he'd picked up on my mood. There was no doubt that Goat wasn't always sane (not that any of the rest of us were), but he did know how to read his teammates pretty damned well. He'd actually be the one to sort of... convince me that my name wasn't totally cheesy. It was a hell of a lot more inspiring to think of myself as a heavenly soldier, than a pretty chick with wings. He nodded at me. "Ready now, Angel?"

"Always."

"Hey, why's she toting that bitch gun?" I rolled my eyes, fairly sure the Kid hadn't meant for me to overhear him whispering to Portman.

"Would you like to carry my kit?" I asked, my voice sugary sweet. "It's only 25-30 lbs or so, and then, you could tote the bitch gun, and I could take your weapon." He sputtered, and I chuckled. I was perfectly content with my pretty. Besides, contrary to Kid's belief, the size really didn't matter. I was every bit as deadly with my lighter weapon, something he'd just have to accept for now.

I looked away as Sarge came on, indicating that we were ready to go. I shot him a perplexed look. Where the hell was John? There was no way in hell Sarge would take the full team without his second. It was damned near unprecedented in my time at R.R.T.S. Sarge didn't meet my gaze, just reached out to close the door. Just before he hit the switch, a gloved hand shot out to stop him, and John pulled himself in. He lowered himself down beside me as always, and I studied him out of the corner of my eye. The man looked more like a kicked puppy than a Marine at the moment. I shook my head at myself, tamping down on my curiosity. Whatever was going on, he'd deal with it. He was too professional not to.

So instead of asking, I just pulled out a stick of gum and handing him half as always.

"Thanks, Angel," he said, meeting my eyes for a bare moment.

"You're welcome," I said softly, "Reaper."

Portman's obnoxious voice drew my attention despite myself. I caught only the tail end of his implying Kid was his new pussy, but it was more than enough to irritate me.

"Portman, shut up." He only sneered at me.

"But it's true. You know, we could dress him up. Put him in a sexy little number like the one you were wearing earlier and-"

"Don't give me an excuse, Portman," Reaper barked, leaning around me. "No one here would miss you." Duke let out a low whistle at the sheer menace in his voice, and I could see Goat raising an interested eyebrow.

"Easy," I whispered under my breath, knowing he was close enough to hear me. He didn't respond, just glared at Portman for another moment, before slowly sinking back into his seat. I released a breath I didn't know I'd been holding, and hoped the men would just think he was unusually pissy in general. As opposed, of course, to unusually pissy about _me._ I glanced back over at him, trying to hide my concern. Something had seriously set him on edge for him to jump into overprotective mode that quickly.

"Men, look in." Sarge cleared his throat and eyed the pair of us as he passed. Forcefully, I pulled my attention from the troubled man beside me, and turned with the others. Sarge switched on the briefing vid, and the face of an extremely frantic man filled the screen. Sarge began to speak, but I found myself having a hard time paying attention after he told us our destination.

"Olduvai," I whispered, glancing back at Reaper. He didn't move, having apparently chosen to stay still, leaning forward and staring hard at the ground. Well, that definitely explained the storm cloud that had settled over his head since he'd climbed on the transport. It had been a huge sign of trust between us, his telling me of the accident and his parents, and the sister he'd barely heard from in years. I doubted anyone but Sarge and I would have guessed how rough this mission might be on him. I shifted slightly, turning back toward Sarge and the briefing, but allowing myself to lean back against him, offering what little support I could given the other men around us. Sarge had continued speaking, and this time, I managed to keep focused on the info.

"Level five security breach, and quarantine in effect. Shit," I murmured to myself. I wondered vaguely, just what sort of security breach had led to this particular quarantine. The video had left us with next to nothing in the way of details, and I was not exactly thrilled to start filling those in. Sarge wrapped up the rest of the briefing and moved back to settle in for the rest of the 200 (Ish? What can I say, cartography was _not_ one of my specialties) mile flight out to Area 51.

Most of the men had fallen silent, the weight of our destination hovering over them. While none of us had the sheer emotional baggage toward it that Reaper did, Olduvai and the Ark were still intimidating as hell, even to a bunch of badass Marines. I, frankly, wasn't sure what I felt about the whole situation. I'd considered an internship on Mars, once upon a time. That had been before Jacob, Sarge's younger brother, died. Before the aftermath of funerals and dishonorable discharge fall out and keeping Sarge and their mother sane. It was more than a little surreal, considering what direction my life might have gone five years ago.

_Or even ten years ago,_ I thought, eavesdropping only a little as Sarge and Reaper made monosyllabic conversation. The warning lights and the pilot announcing that we'd reached our destination jolted me out of my musings. I leaned my shoulder into Reaper's just a little harder, meeting his eyes for only a moment. Then, almost as one, both of us looked away for one last check of our weapons. Then the transport door was opening, and I didn't have time to think of anything but the mission. It was time to go to work.

**Reviews are love- John even says so!**


	3. Welcome to Olduvai

**Welcome to Chapter three my dears! Just to let you know, I sorta spliced one movie character with the original characterizations in the script. Hope it doesn't annoy anyone!**

**Chapter 3: Welcome to Olduvai. Or Testosterone Annoyances**

It was always tense, standing behind that transport door, and waiting for it to open. This time was especially so, and I found myself absently reaching for the extra dog tag strung on my chain (stupid really, considering it was buried beneath my vest and uniform, but it was somehow a comfort none the less.) Sarge let out a barking order, and the door opened. Reaper and Portman took off down the walkway, falling easily into our repetition-cemented training, weapons up and tracking for any threat. It wasn't likely that there would be one here, but with a situation like this, who could tell. The rest of us followed and fell into formation with Sarge on point.

I was just behind and to Reaper's left, with Mac and Goat behind me respectively. That Sarge had apparently thought I needed to be in that slightly more protected position had been yet another thing for the men to rag me on. No one bought the real reason: that my damned pack and its contents were worth my weight in fucking Kevlar. That is, no one bought it until they realized there'd been more than one mission where I'd either pulled a miracle out of the damned thing, or conversely, found myself to be one hell of a target when whatever cargo we'd been sent to retrieve was stowed with me for safe keeping. Considering that, it hadn't taken the men long to figured out that Sarge had a damned good reason for positioning me where he did.

We all stood silent and alert as the elevator to the Ark facility slowly rose out of the ground in front of us. I shivered a little; I'd been here for that interview once upon a time, but it was still more than a little creepy. The doors slid open with a hiss, and we piled in. The Kid was a half second behind us, having stared at the elevator for a moment too long, and I winced as Sarge very pointedly dressed him down. Then the doors closed, and we were making the long decent down.

I shifted my feet uncomfortably. I had a feeling whoever had designed the damn thing had planned for the elevator to be nice and roomy, but with nine Marines in full gear crammed inside, it was more than a little claustrophobic. I tried to follow Reaper's example and stare out the sky light, but it began to make me dizzy and I moved my eye to look forward at Reaper himself, instead.

I couldn't have said how far beneath the surface the facility actually was, but it was a hell of a long way down there. We'd been descending for nearly a minute when a sharp grab to my posterior had me nearly jumping into Reaper.

"Goddamn it, Portman!" I didn't even need to turn around to know it had been his roving hands again. I should have known better than to stand anywhere near to him. Reaper had tensed at my outburst, and I prayed he could keep his cool. He was beginning to turn, when a hand grabbed me by the arm and pulled me sharply to the right, another body slipping past me as I moved.

"I wouldn't suggest trying that with me," Goat said quietly, now in the spot I'd been standing in a moment before. His tone was mild, and his posture gave every impression that he hadn't a care in the world. Portman only grimaced, knowing damn well that Goat was anything but mild.

"Portman, at least act like you're a professional." Sarge didn't bother turning around. Portman's tendency to fuck with me was something to be expected. Loathed, but expected. Sarge would deal with him later, after the mission was complete. I allowed myself a small smile: I had a feeling latrine duty was in Portman's near future, something he absolutely hated.

I let out a sigh of sheer relief as we finally reached the facility floor. More than ready to be out of the box, I followed close behind Sarge as he strode down the hall. We were stopped by a smarmy little man who was the UAC's excuse for a public relations guy. I damned near guffawed as the dumb ass actually held out his hand for Sarge to shake (apparently the massive gun in my CO's hand was supposed to magically disappear or something…moron.) To his credit, the smaller man didn't seem too discomforted by the Marines looming over him. Instead, he simply surveyed us for a moment, then spun on his heel, and motioned for the team to follow.

"This way, gentlemen." He shot a sly glance over his shoulder. "And lady." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Duke didn't have my sense of restraint. There wasn't really time for anyone else to respond. Sarge broke in, pressing the PR moron for actual useful info: the number of personnel, any further communication, etc. There were just under a hundred employees on Olduvai. I was a little relieved at that. It was still far more people than I wanted to deal with if things went south, but it was still better than some of the missions we'd been on. Smarmy led us into a large circular room and down onto the floor.

"Keep your distance from the core… it might suck you in."

I swallowed tightly. It would indeed suck us in, and I was _so_ not excited about that. The sound of the Ark initiating gave me shivers, and for once, I wasn't the only one willing to admit that I was skittish. Goat and Kid were talking in low tones beside me, and it was clear Kid was nervous as hell. A shining, somehow liquid sphere rose from the center of the room and we all fell quiet. Sarge nodded to Reaper, who, as the member of the team with the most experience with Ark travel, stepped forward to enter first. He drew close to the sphere and was sucked up and shot outward. Sarge went through, and I stepped up next, feeling far too anxious to keep waiting.

_Better to get it over with_, I thought and leaned into the shining surface. I was next aware of crashing to my knees and barfing my guts out on the platform floor. There really aren't words to describe the way the Ark fucked with the human body; I felt almost lucky that I was only nauseated. I felt someone pull me off the floor and out of the way of the other incoming men. Reaper, already steady on his feet (the bastard), pressed a flask into my hands.

"Rinse your mouth out. It'll help." I took a sip, finding nothing stronger than Listerine, and rinsed and spit as instructed. It did help; I was still a little queasy, but at least my mouth didn't taste like crap anymore. It was almost enough to redeem his aggravating ability to land on his feet even after barf-inducing galactic transportation. I nodded my thanks wearily and handed it back. The one upside of my discomfort was that every one of us was in a similar state, though, of course, none of them had the benefit of my Reaper's Boy Scout tendencies. In fact, I might have even come out ahead compared to Kid and Mac's sheer misery.

"Is it always that rough?" Kid asked after all of us had arrived.

"It used to be a lot rougher," a wry voice called. We all looked up to see a rather bizarre sight rolling towards us. "There was a time when Ark travel was susceptible to, let's say, major turbulence." I couldn't help but stare a little: the man looked to be half machine from the waist down. Kid asked Reaper what the stranger meant, and I leaned in to get his answer too.

"He means, he went to one galaxy. His ass went to another." The UAC employee seemed rather nonplussed by the attention (impressive considering Sarge was studying him like some sort of sideshow freak.) He simply introduced himself, and told us to call him 'Pinky.'

"Pinky, put us up," Sarge ordered, and Pinky rolled himself over to a console I hadn't paid any attention to.

"Activating remote surveillance." Sarge called us over to circle up, and on three we all hefted our weapons (a move that generally gave me some rather less than professional tinglies. What can I say: that much firepower in one spot was just sexy.) Reaper shot me a guarded look, letting me know he knew damn well what I was thinking right then. I just grinned cheekily.

"Kill cams up and running, people." Sarge nodded over to Pinky, then ran through orders, I at least had been expecting. The Ark room would be a Code Red, absolutely our last protected area. Mac, our resident technical prodigy was left behind with Pinky, and the rest of us moved out through the air-locked door and into Olduvai itself.

We strode through the corridor and up a flight of stairs into what I could only guess would be the atrium. It was a massive space, far more open that I expected. All around us, scientists huddled about, viewing us with what could only be described as fear. I could hear snatches of conversation. The rumors were already flying. I sighed, and realized I'd fallen a bit behind the others.

"What exactly do we have here?" A hand ran down my arm, and I spun angrily to see a rather short and stocky man in what looked like a security coverall. "I didn't expect to see a woman come in with those muscle heads."

"Excuse me?" I snapped. Seriously, what the hell was in the air around here? Portman was expected, but the PR asshole and now this guy... I was really getting sick of being identified by my gender first, uniform second.

"Lieutenant Huneg, ma'am. I'm head of UAC security here on Olduvai." Huneg looked at me, as if expecting me to be impressed at his rank at the station. I only stared at him, contempt beginning to curl my lips. He smiled, and yet again put his hand on me, this time running it along my side to my waist. I had the hand closest to him occupied with my rifle, but I was seriously debating on throwing the weapon at his head. "God, there is something about a strong woman, you know? I just have to-"

"Have to back the fuck off?" a voice snarled, and then Reaper was at my side, literally ripping the other man's hand off of me. He held on to Huneg's arm, twisting it just enough to make it painful. His face was twisted with rage. I didn't doubt he'd finally been pushed a little farther than his already battered nerves could take.

"Shit," I muttered to myself, quickly reaching out to grab my lover's arm. "Reaper, enough." I had to yank harder than I expected, but after a moment Reaper dropped the other man (though I was unsurprised to see he didn't drop the glare.)

"What the hell is going on?" I suppressed a groan. Bad enough that Reaper'd gotten involved, now Sarge too? I let go of Reaper's arm and turned to see Sarge and the rest of the team surveying our little trio. Sarge's eyes darted from Huneg to Reaper to me and back again. "I'm going to say this once," he began, turning to catch the other men's eyes too. "The next man to treat my Specialist as anything other than a professional will be dealing with me personally. Get your heads out of your pants. Is that understood?" I rolled my eyes, aggravated with the lot of them.

"'Cause that little speech made me look like anything but a professional. Thanks, Sarge," I said, my voice thick with sarcasm. There was a snort to my left, and I glanced to see a lovely young woman edging around Portman toward our group. We shared one of those universal looks of disdain for the male of the species, and then Huneg introduced her.

Dr. Samantha Grimm. His sister. I blinked for a moment, and turned to catch a look of weary resignation cross Reaper's face as she said hello to him. It looked like he'd had some vague hopes of keeping out of her way, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. I resisted the urge to hit him as he drawled out some condescending comment about 'military operations' and Dr. Grimm's 'science homework.' I might love him like crazy, but Reaper had a tendency to be as chauvinistic as any other spec ops Marine. I could only assume he'd gotten better about it with me on the team, but who knew? Either way, I was amused as hell to see it shot down by Sarge's orders and Samantha's cool reply.

As she turned to lead the way down to the labs, I caught her shooting me a covert glance I didn't know her well enough to translate. Instead of responding, I fell back behind Duke and Destroyer. Sarge's minor dressing down was going to be more than enough to keep Reaper in line, and in any case, my amusement at his sister was not going to help his mood. Nor was Duke's crack about 'a fine piece of ass like that.' Destroyer and I gave long suffering groans as Duke got a little too interested to discover that Samantha was Reaper's sister instead of say... his ex-wife.

"Can't you do something about him?" I asked Destroyer. He turned to Duke.

"Don't start this again, man..." Duke only looked confused. I shook my head. So typical.

Dr. Grimm and Huneg led us down a long sterile looking corridor, all the while explaining the rough schematics of the labs, and how many personnel had been trapped when the quarantine took effect. I was a little confused by her description of Olduvai being primarily an archeological research site. If that was true, then what in God's name could possibly be causing a security breach? I was jolted out of those worrying thoughts by something even more sinister. I was flat out horrified by the horror on Huneg's tape. There was no way to describe those sounds as anything other than sheer terror and panic.

He switched off the tape and Sarge glanced back at us for a brief second. We were all silent, the tape having confirmed with all of us just how serious this mission might well become. He turned back to face Dr. Grimm.

"Open the door."

**Things are starting to heat up my dears! Hope you liked it enough to review.. hell review even if you hated it!**


	4. Archeological Discussions

**Welp here we are again! I actually had this finished earlier this weekend, but considering FFN's glitching all over the place, I decided to wait to post. **

**Sadly, I have NOT managed to purchase John via Ebay since posting the last chappie, so I still own nothing but the movie (and the book- it finally got here lol)**

**Chapter 4: Archeological Discussions or Sibling Bickering Abounds**

Dr. Grimm used a key card on the door, and the airlock released with a menacing hiss. Sarge turned back, his gaze flickering across two of us.

"Portman, Angel. Lead on." We both nodded silently and pulled out a pair of hand-held sensors. With a quick glance at each other (and thank God, Portman tended to get professional about his specialty, at least) and slipped through the door. I kept my eyes glued to my sensor as it tested the air with a tiny whirr of sound. Negative, negative, negative. All the major airborne diseases tested out negative. Just to be on the safe side, I tapped in my code to run most of the minor ones, as well.

"Magnesium, Chromium, Lead...It's all normal," Portman called out, and I seconded that. Whatever was being quarantined was not airborne. I allowed myself to be mildly thankful: airborne agents were far harder to avoid than those passed through touch or bodily fluids, and God knew, getting the men to agree to hazmats was damned near impossible. Sarge and the rest of the men came in, with Dr. Grimm following behind us and re-locking the door.

"Pinky, give us a schematic." We all turned to face the screen on the wall as Pinky uploaded a detailed map. I took care to study it as I knew I was the most likely of our group to get herself hopelessly turned around. My truly pathetic sense of direction had almost kept me off the team; even Reaper's tutoring hadn't helped much. My best bet was to memorize the map as best I could, and keep close to whoever I was paired with. I ignored Pinky's voice; verbal directions only served to further confuse me.

"Goat, Portman: genetics." I reluctantly drew my attention away from the schematic as Sarge began assigning us for a sweep of the facility. "Kid, Destroyer: Carmack's office where he sent the mayday from." His eyes flickered back to Reaper and I, and I was a bit perturbed to see a hint of mischief there.

"Reaper: you and Angel keep Dr. Grimm here safe on her salvage op." I only barely caught him saying that he and Duke would be in the weapons lab. I was too busy mentally cussing my CO for all he was worth. While, yes, I did think Reaper and his sister needed to actually speak... the middle of an op was not the place for it. And fuck, if I was going to enjoy playing mediator. I pointedly ignored the little voice in my head that admitted the civilian would likely be kept even safer than normal with her extremely protective brother (and said brother's lover, though Sarge generally tried to pretend he didn't know that) keeping watch.

"Be safe, gentleman. Portman, Goat: on you." There was a momentary cacophony as 9 weapons were cocked almost simultaneously. Goat pushed open the door to the lab, and he and Portman slipped through, followed by Kid and Destroyer. Reaper pushed through next, and I nodded at his sister to stay between her brother and I.

The hallway we entered was easily one of the more foreboding locales I'd seen, and considering the missions we normally had, that was saying quite a bit. Only the pale blue emergency lighting offered any illumination beyond our weapon-lights, and steam leaked out from various pipes along the walls. I wondered if the steam was normal... I didn't think it was too likely that the pipes had all been damaged in the past few hours. At least, I didn't know how it could be possible. It seemed like we all needed a minute to gather ourselves: the team stayed huddled near the door. For once I was glad of Portman's sad attempt at humor. Weak though it might have been and despite the fact that none of us outwardly responded, his crack about a disgruntled employee served to lighten the tension. Sarge reminded us to be sure to mark the rooms we'd cleared, and ordered us to head out.

Reaper had point, and with a jerk of his head at Dr. Grimm and me, he turned and headed down one of the passageways that I could only assume led to our destination. The silence, broken only by the sound of our boots and the faint groaning and gurgling of the pipes lining the walls, was almost as creepy as the dimly lit corridors themselves, and I could feel my nerves going hyper alert. I tapped up the volume on my earpiece just a touch, craving the slight reassurance that the rest of the team was out there. It didn't do much good; the rest of the team was moving out as silently as we were.

I was relieved when we reached a door marked 'Archeology Spectrograph Laboratory,' Dr. Grimm waved her hand over the door sensor to let us in. I grabbed her arm when she would have entered, and shook my head at her to wait for Reaper. He barely acknowledged that we'd paused, sliding past us and into the dark room.

"Lock it." Sam moved to a panel just inside the door and switched the lights on, and, with a glance to make sure I was inside, did as he'd ordered. Both Reaper and I swept the now well lit room. "It's clear," Reaper said, and I just nodded in agreement. "How long you gonna need?" Reaper asked, taking in the cluttered room.

"Thirty minutes. Tops," she replied, taking a seat at one of the computer consoles and quickly entering in her passcode. She set about pulling up the servers she'd need, choosing to ignore us for the most part. I took the chance offered by her lack of attention to study Reaper. He was still scanning the room like he expected a threat to pop out of the woodwork, his eyes nearly vibrating as they flickered over each object in the room again and again. I frowned to myself. He was far too tense, even for being mid-mission. I knew my Reaper, and if he didn't allow himself to breathe soon, he was going to snap at the least opportune moment.

"Reaper," I called out, and waited for him to turn and look at me. Once he did, one eyebrow raised in question, I turned my head to the side and very obviously switched the mouthpiece of my headset off. "Can I have a word?" For a moment, he hesitated and I almost thought he was going to refuse, but instead he turned off his mouthpiece too.

"Sam, we'll be right outside the door." She cast another one of those considering glances at us, but just nodded as we slipped through the door. We put our backs to the now closed door, and turned slightly away from each other, still watchful. After the moment it took to assure us both that nothing was nearby, I broke the silence.

"How you holding up, John?" I asked, using his first name oh-so-deliberately. Here was another moment where I knew he might choose not to respond, to stay locked in the up-tight Marine instead of the man I was trying to reach. After a tense pause, he sighed out my name in a quiet surrender to my prodding. He leaned as close as vests and weapons and my damned kit would allow him.

"Not too well," he said with a self-deprecating chuckle. I leaned my head against his shoulder a little, but kept my silence, waiting for him to go on. "It's hard to be here. Harder than I thought." I nodded, and he dropped a quick kiss on my head.

"You can handle it, John," I said finally. "I know you can." I forced a little levity into my voice. "And if not, I'm here and, I'll kick your ass till you do."

"You would, too." He chuckled a little at that, and I finally felt his body relax just a hair. He was still alert, as he should be, but not nearly as tightly wound. I breathed a little easier. He slowly leaned away from me, reluctantly or so I told myself. "We need to go back inside."

I nodded. He grinned suddenly, and as I turned toward the door, I found myself yanked over for a swift rough kiss that made my knees give way. He held me steady with his free hand, his expression smug. "Now we can go back in."

I rolled my eyes, and debating on smacking the back of his head as I followed him back into the lab. Sam was still at her computer, and she barely glanced up at us as I shut and locked the door again. I moved to lean against a wall, pointedly avoiding Reaper's gaze as I figured I probably would hit him, and absently wondered what time it was supposed to be here in Olduvai. We'd been called out barely an hour before dawn from base, but hell if I knew which time zone Mars coordinated with. Hell, I wasn't even sure how many hours were technically in a day here. I was debating on asking Dr. Grimm, when the familiar and dreaded sound of gunfire came over my earpiece. I didn't have to look to know that Reaper snapped to attention in sync with me, and both of us readied our weapons.

"All units, report contact! Goddamn, all units report contact!" Sarge's voice was no less intimidating over the comm, and Reaper barked out his negative as another burst of fire sounded. We both shook our heads as Destroyer came on the line, sounding irritated.

"Friendly fire, Sarge. Wasting ghosts." Reaper and I shot each other knowing looks. The Kid... It had to have been the Kid. I'd never agreed with R.R.T.S. policy that a rookie's first mission should be with the entire team. Those tended to be the roughest games we faced after all, and I couldn't help but feel a faint tremor of foreboding. As touch-and-go as this mission was looking to be, I worried that it wouldn't be the last time Kid's nerves caused a major problem.

"So, Reaper, as in grim?" Dr. Grimm hadn't caught the shift in our focus, apparently, and took that moment to break the silence in a rather catty attempt at conversation.

"They're Marines, Sam, not poets." I caught a glimpse of Reaper's face and decided to try to change the subject to something a little less insulting, or so I thought.

"Holy shit," I said, moving over to stand in front of the glass case holding a pair of skeletons. Reaper wandered over, and his sister turned to look.

"Oh yeah, meet Lucy," she said. "Lucy, this is my brother, John, another creature from the long lost past." I swallowed a groan. So much for trying for something civil. To my great relief (and surprise) instead of snapping back at her, Reaper seemed willing to at least act interested in the artifact.

"You found human remains?" he said, his voice inviting an answer.

"Humanoid. Lucy and her child were our first major find. We're bringing out more every day." There was a brief moment where I had the knee-jerk reaction that there was something really wrong about her statement, but Reaper caught what it was before I did.

"You reopened the dig."

Well shit. I bit my lip, and ducked my head as the situation spiraled, and the twins began hurling verbal barbs at each other. I felt more than a little awkward being in the room for something that I knew was private for the two of them, but at the same time, I couldn't look away. For her part, Dr. Grimm did look as if she was sorry she hadn't told Reaper about the dig, but her crack about a yearly birthday card was more than a little bitchy in my opinion.

"Look, it's been stabilized-"

"Bullshit!" I jumped a little as Reaper practically shouted his frustration. She didn't look nearly as startled as I did, just spat out a comment about how safe her brother's current job actually wasn't. Her voice softened though, growing damn near weary as she explained away her choice of Olduvai as "where the work was."

"Is that the only reason you're up here?" Reaper asked, his voice only slightly louder than hers.

"You want to know why I'm up here? Come here and take a look at this." Her voice held a touch of excitement now, and I didn't doubt that whatever it was, it was the only thing she was excited about up here. Reaper wandered over, but I throttled down my curiosity and stayed where I was. "This is Lucy's chromosome map. Notice anything?"

My ears perked up, and I had to force myself not to respond.

"My molecular genetics is a little rusty," Reaper drawled. She didn't allow him to back down, just told him to focus on whatever their father had told them to look for first. Reaper went silent for a moment, and I glanced over to see a look of total concentration and mild confusion.

"Angel," he called, surprising me. "You'll want to take a look at this." Ignoring the look of surprise on Dr. Grimm's face, I took the few strides over to his side to look at her computer screen. Reaper waited until my quick gasp told him I'd seen what he had, then he turned and answered his sister. "She's got 24 pairs of chromosomes."

"Humans only have 23."

"So what's the extra pair do?" I asked. Reaper gave me a wry look that said he'd been about to ask the same question.

"Makes her superhuman." She strode over to the case, her voice taking on the tones of a professor. I gave her a look of disbelief that soon turned to wonder as she explained all of Lucy's gifts. These humanoids had conquered disease? I thought of all the horrors I'd seen through my work in epidemiology and wished I could believe such a thing was possible.

"So, what? They were just naturally superior?" Reaper asked. Her computer chimed, and she hurried over to switch out another disk.

"No, not naturally." She shook her head. "See the first remains we found only had 23. We think the extra pair might be synthetic."

"Bio-engineered?" Reaper looked skeptical.

"That's a long word for a Marine," she quipped, and Reaper and I rolled our eyes at one another. "Does it ever bother you that you could have spent your life looking in a microscope instead of a sniper scope?"

Reaper looked insulted, and I knew I was, as well. I might have made a decision to stay out of their little sibling rivalry, but I was not in the mood to let that slight go.

"You say that like it's impossible to do both." She glanced at me dismissively, and, despite Reaper shaking his head for me to drop it, I spoke up again. "You know, your brother's our medic." Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, and I've got my Master's in epidemiology, and another of our unit is only a semester away from getting his in Technical Engineering." I raised an eyebrow, daring her to comment.

With a look to me that clearly said "Down, girl," Reaper changed the subject.

"If they were so smart, how come they're so dead?" Dr. Grimm hesitated, and I felt a trickle of fear.

"We don't know." She looked away. "Maybe they just went with time."

"You don't shield a baby from time." I shivered, wishing my lover wasn't quite so good at reading body language.

"We got movement up ahead." Reaper jerked at Portman's voice, and Dr. Grimm noticed this time, looking up. He readied his weapon and turned to her.

"You stay here, okay?" She looked a little skittish, and I made a quick decision.

"I'll stay with her." He nodded gratefully.

"Lock the door."

**I hope that flowed well for all of you! I had a helluva time getting it the way I wanted it. Reviews are love, as always!**


	5. Something in the Blood

**And we have a new chapter! This one was a bit of a challenge. Considering that there's no real way of knowing when exactly all the simultanious action happens, it took quite a bit of watching and re-watching of the movie (I know... I'm willing to torture myself huh? *grin*) and discussing with my beta askita (and a quick re-through by my chica Kymyume as well cuz she begged lol). So let me know if that part worked my dears! nWe're getting into the action finally, though poor Angel's stuck fretting from the sidelines for a good bit of it. Hope you like it!**

**P.S. Only Angel belongs to me, though Reaper totally wants to have my babies. *beam***

**Chapter 5 Something in the Blood or I hate running.**

I suppose it would have been asking too much for my babysitting job to stay simple. In the first few moments after John left, I focused on my headset, trying to keep a mental track of my teammates. It was that narrowed focus that allowed Dr. Grimm to escape. I hadn't seen her do it, but somehow she managed to grab her disks, and then slip past me to the door. It was only when the door slid open with its normal hiss, that I shot my gaze back over, just in time to see Reaper's sister take off running.

"Son of a bitch!" I took off after her, my legs pounding loudly down the hallway. She was faster than I was and was quickly loosing me as she darted around corners and up a flight of stairs. I cursed both her and Reaper for having the nerve to be born both brilliant and naturally athletic. "Fucking twins..." I turned a corner and faltered to a stop. The corridor branched off in front of me, and I had to admit I had no idea where I was. I'd heard Goat say something about Carmack's lab over the headset, but where that was in reference to my current position, or even to the Archeology lab I'd just left, I really couldn't have said. Not for the first time, I wished I'd been born with something like a sense of direction. This wasn't even a safe situation to be in.

"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered, and reached up to mute my headset for a moment. I needed as near to silence as I could get to try to figure out which corridor Dr. Grimm had taken. The faint pound of footsteps sounded from the left, and I set out running again, switching my headset back on as I did. I could hear Reaper calling out an order for someone to drop a weapon if they had it, and I forced myself to pick up my speed, pushing away my discomfort at the weight dragging against my shoulders. I turned another corner and saw lights flicker from a connecting passageway down at the end of the hall I was now in. I slowed my pace as I approached the passageway and was relieved to hear the sound of military issue boots.

I turned the corner in time to see Dr. Grimm all but stumble headlong into her brother. Reaper tried to shove her back from whatever they all were huddled around, his eyes half panicked as he barked that he'd told her to stay put. I hurried to their sides as Dr. Grimm tried to defend herself.

"But he knows me, John!" I reached Reaper as she stepped forward trying to placate the battered scientist twitching in the corner.

"Dammit, Angel..." Reaper was glaring at me, but I was too aggravated myself to worry about it.

"She's your sister. What did you exp-"

"Ohhh Jesus Christ!" I shuddered as my brain caught up with what I was seeing. Had Carmack actually ripped off his own ear? And was that a fucking arm on the floor? "Get a med kit." I was too rattled to respond, but Reaper was way ahead of me, pulling open one of his vest pockets to hand her what she'd asked for. I watched as she eased over to him, my mind attempting to categorize Carmack's condition, as if reducing him down to mere 'symptoms' would make it easier to bear looking at his wounds. He was shuddering violently, which didn't surprise me. Judging by the looks of the random arm on the floor, PTSD would be damn near expected. But the twitching added to the self mutilation... Something about those were making me wonder. There was a grayish cast to his skin as well. It was likely to just be blood loss, but I made a mental note of that, as well.

"Duke, you and Angel help Dr. Grimm get Carmack to the infirmary." As always, Sarge's decisive voice was able to cut through my nerves, pulling me back to the medically trained professional that I was. I knelt to help Dr. Grimm lifted the still-trembling scientist. I fought a cringe as I settled his weight over my shoulder. I hoped being cared for from someone he knew might start to calm Carmack down. I was not going to be held responsible for my actions if he decided to try ripping off my ear next. Sarge had assigned the others to either guard the airlock or to continue searching the facility. With Duke leading, weapon up to defend our little group, we started back to the main complex. Reaper's worried eyes met mine as we passed him, and I gave him a small nod. That single gesture was all that I could give to reassure him that his sister and I would be fine in Carmack's dubious company.

Another nurse joined us as we exited the airlock. I didn't know if she'd been waiting around while we'd been down there or if she'd just happened to guess we were coming, but either way I was glad for the little extra help. She was even shorter than I was but apparently stronger than she looked. Dr. Grimm slipped from under Carmack's left shoulder so she could open the infirmary nanowall, and the nurse moved to help me heft his limp weight without being asked.

"Nah... nah, I don't do nanowalls." I wanted to feel sorry for Duke, really I did; phobias were a bitch to deal with. I just didn't have the energy.

"You do now," I snapped, earning a disturbingly familiar eyebrow raise from Dr. Grimm. So much for non-identical twins, I thought. Their eyes and expressions were just too damned similar, even after 10 years apart. Duke looked over at me reproachfully, but then straightened his shoulders, and after a terse instruction for us to wait for him, he braced himself and walked through the undulating wall. After sweeping the infirmary, he waved us in, and together the nurse and I dragged Carmack in and over to a bed. Duke came over to take most of the weight off of us, and on the count of three, he and the nurse lifted him up onto a bed. I turned to see Dr. Grimm pulling over a monitor. I wasn't sure when she'd grabbed one of the lab coats hanging by the door, but she was wearing one now. I considered for a moment, and then moved to a nearby table and unfastened my kit from my shoulders. I wasn't sure I'd actually be needed with Carmack considering the nurse, but I was going to be comfortable if I was. It was as good an excuse as any to shed the extra weight.

"Did you find the others?"

"Not yet."

"My husband's with them..." I ducked my head, glad I didn't have to be the one to answer her. Dr. Grimm tried.

"I'm sure Steve's fine." There was a moment of awkward silence, as all of us privately thought that really Steven probably wasn't. I stripped off my gloves and rolled back the sleeves of my coverall, vaguely annoyed that I still needed my vest on. I was reaching for the familiar medical gloves when Dr. Carmack all but lunged at Dr. Grimm. Duke and I both surged forward, intending on pulling the scientist off of her, but she shook her head. "It's OK. It's OK."

I eyed her. It was the second time she'd put herself into what could really be a dangerous situation, letting what was obviously a disturbed individual get that close to her. I was almost impressed, if a bit worried over her apparent lack of concern for her own safety. That was going to drive Reaper really crazy really fast if I knew her brother. I shook off the thought as Carmack's words left shivers going down my spine. Shut it down? What exactly was 'it?' And what exactly was inside? I bit my lip, almost hoping he'd progressed to hallucinations along with his terror.

Duke and I found ourselves at loose ends. He had next to no medical training, and with Dr. Grimm and the nurse being familiar to Carmack, I wasn't really needed. We were leaning on the table with my gear when the sound of gunfire came over the headsets again.

"Sarge, what's happening?" I said, struggling to keep my voice calm in front of the civilians. It was Portman who answered; his voice sounding shaken for the first time since I'd known him.

"Sarge, I think we found the rest of that arm."

"Shit," Duke muttered. I nodded.

"Portman, I hate to ask, but I may need specifics," I said quietly.

"Female, mid-30s maybe." Portman's voice was terse. "She came at us with some kind of a fucking hacksaw. We had to take her down."

"A hacksaw?" I asked, almost to myself. I glanced back over toward Carmack, ignoring the nurse and Dr. Grimm's concerned faces. "So you'd say she was unstable huh?"

"Fuck, Angel. She had stripped fucking naked and was writing 'Suffer' on the walls in her own goddamned blood. Shit!" I winced. Unstable was a fucking understatement to say the least. I glanced back at Dr. Carmack. The gray tint to his skin was getting worse.

"Did you notice any discoloration of her skin?"

"Did I notice... No I didn't notice any discoloration. I was a little distracted by the fact that she didn't have an arm and was trying to kill us!" Portman snarled. Duke, listening in, shook his head and muttered something about 'the asshole' and 'only doing her job.' He was right, on both counts. I thanked Portman anyway. I didn't think I'd handle that line of questioning any better in his shoes.

I opened my mouth to give Dr. Grimm the update on the female scientist, but another burst of gunfire cut me off. Duke and I stared at each other, wide eyed. Again, so soon? What the fuck was going on? Reaper reported the contact with a Dr. Olsen, apparently as psychotic as Carmack. I didn't bother asking Reaper what I'd asked Portman; if he'd seen any obvious symptoms, he would have told me immediately. I told Dr. Grimm about Olsen and the woman quietly, hoping Olsen hadn't been the nurse's husband. She looked as horrified as I felt. It was an indication of my shock that I barely twitched when gunfire echoed again.

"...some kind of monkey..." Destroyer's voice had the same edge that Portman's had. I sighed. At least I wouldn't need to tell Dr. Grimm about another death. Or at least, not yet.

"Oh my god... There's something in his blood." We both turned to see the nurse indicating the vial of blood she'd been taking from Carmack. It was spotted with a multitude of dark viscous spots, almost as if the red blood cells had grown enormous. I took in Carmack's sleeping form.

"What's happening to him?" Dr. Grimm asked, almost to herself. None of us had an answer. I simply pulled on a pair of gloves and moved to watch as the nurse began to run the blood sample through a scanner.

Shots rang out, and this time, it was Reaper's voice damn near panicked. I did jerk at that one. There was very, very little that could drive his tone to that fever pitch.

"Reaper, what have you got?" Sarge knew his second almost as well as I did.

"We're chasing something. Something big. Not human!" What the fuck? I stripped of the medical gloves, and Duke and I both reached for our weapons.

"It's in the sewer. All units, all units. Southeast corridor. Near the med lab." I was half way to the nanowall, desperate to back up Reaper, when I pulled myself up short. Carmack's blood—I had another job to do.

"Son of a bitch... Sarge, there's something in Carmack's blood." I lowered my weapon again, fighting the urge to take off running back into the lab complex: back to Reaper.

"Shit." Sarge wasn't the only one cursing. I could hear Portman, Kid, and Reaper all echoing his sentiment from where ever they were in the complex. After a moment of short breaths told me Sarge was likely double-timing it to Reaper's position while he thought out the situation, he barked out an order for Duke and I to stay where we were. "Get to work on figuring out what the hell we're dealing with, Angel." There was a beat of silence, and then Sarge cursed again. "And I saw some kind of heavy black crap in the blood of that monkey Destroyer killed. That what you're seeing?"

"Yeah, that's exactly it. Keep me posted if any of you see anything else."

"Affirmative." I bit my lip, forcing myself not to add one last word to Reaper. It was seriously freaking me out to think of him, of any of my teammates, down a goddamn sewer with some unknown pathogen on the loose.

I walked over to Dr. Grimm and the nurse, heading the tail end of their conversation as Dr. Grimm told her to go be with her daughter. As the nurse left, the monitor beeped, signaling the blood scan had completed.

"What the..." We exchanged a worried look, as Duke came up behind us.

"No blood match. That can't be good, right?" She shook her head, and turned; I was guessing to go draw another blood sample from Carmack.

"This is crazy..." Her voice trailed off. Duke moved to her side. "He's gone." I turned, unable to hide the horror on my face. He was undeniably infected. Probably by something I'd never seen before, and he'd managed to escape our watch without a single sound. I turned to stare back at the monitor and then took the few short strides to pull a disk from my kit.

"Can that scanner sync up with a computer?" I asked Dr. Grimm. She nodded, a question clear in her eyes. "Some of nastier viruses might confuse the scan by mutating the blood and tissue far from the human norm. Judging from Carmack's sample, this has got to be one of them." Dr. Grimm shook her head, moving to hook up the computer despite her obvious confusion.

"Our scanners are top of the line. It should have picked up something like that."

I shoved my disk into the slot, and typed in my pass-code. Immediately, a list and comparative sample of every infectious disease and bio-agent known to the American United Armed Forces Marine Corps' Medical branch. I, and the other epidemiologists and virologists sent out in the field, had a regular scheduled update and up-link with the Medical Headquarters out in Fort Sam Houston. This led to my being in possession of what was probably the single most complete list of diseases anyone was likely to have. I started running the list against the sample we had, narrowing the search by symptoms and similarity instead of an exact match. Only once the scan had started did I turn back to meet Dr. Grimm's gaze.

"There's a chance that whatever the original pathogen, it's now mutated beyond what your database might be able to recognize. Judging from what Sarge told me, I think one of the lab animals was probably a carrier. He said they found a monkey with a similar blood contaminant." I said in a voice I hoped was convincing, having shoved aside my fear that this might be something entirely new. After a moment, I scowled as I realized I did need to address those concerns. "Unless, Dr. Carmack's team was working on some kind of new pathogen?" I asked, studying her face for any kind of evasion.

"No, nothing that should be doing this." Her face still looked honest, but I didn't miss the fact that they were obviously working on something then. I hoped this wasn't one of their experiments gone totally wrong.

Suddenly, painful screaming sounded through my earpiece. I cringed at the pitch and nearly jerked it completely out of my ear before I managed to turn the volume down to a manageable level. I could hear Reaper roaring wordlessly in what could only be sheer rage as gunfire thundered, and Sarge shouting for him to report. I held my breath as instead of an answer only more gunshots followed, and then a beat of unbearable silence. Reaper finally spoke, but the words did nothing to alleviate my tension.

"Man down!"

***ducks* I know I know.. bad cliffie and I'm sorry! But really, this was going to be the best stopping point for this chapter.. there really wasn't much I could do about it. Reviews make Reaper grin!**


	6. Requiem

**So this chapter is much shorter than usual, but fact is... I bawled, and just couldn't work up the strength to write any further. **

**Chapter 6: Requiem **

"Sarge, Reaper, status!" I strained to hear, to pick up something sane through the babble of profanity and panic on the other end of the comm. "Dammit, John, talk to me, please!"

"Angel," My knees went weak at the sound of his voice, alive and well. I grabbed for a table blindly as he went on. "Goat's been attacked. He's lost a lot of blood. We're inbound now; get the infirmary prepped." Just as abruptly as he'd spoke, John went silent again. I looked up to meet Duke's horrified eyes, knowing mine were much the same. Of all the scenarios that had gone through my mind when the screaming started, the one face I hadn't seen, the one man I hadn't ever thought I'd need to worry for was Goat.

"Dr. Grimm, they..." I trailed off, knowing there was no way I'd be able to vocalize what was happening. Duke shot me a concerned glance and turned to tell her himself. I took a deep breath and as I exhaled, forced myself into motion. I had to keep it together. "You're a professional, Angel. Act like one," I snapped at myself. With steps I told myself were steady, I strode to the table where I'd dumped my kit earlier.

_Goat's been attacked. _My brain felt like it was moving in slow motion, though my body had somehow taken over, stripping off my vest and zipping my coverall down to my waist in 2 swift motions. _He's lost a lot of blood._ Goat was O-, the universal donor just like me. We, were in fact, the only 2 members in R.R.T.S. 6 with that blood type, which is why we'd almost always been paired up for smaller missions. Goat had ended up giving nearly 2 pints for me when I'd taken a bullet to the thigh on one truly horrific mission. He'd saved my life that day. _Get prepped._ Being a universal donor was only useful if you weren't the one hurt. When you were...

...you better hope you had a partner who was one, too. I pulled my coverall off my shoulders and tied the sleeves around my waist leaving my arms bare for the likely transfusion to come. It was my day to return the favor, and save _his_ life. A day I'd never known would come, had almost been sure wouldn't come.

This wasn't the rookie Kid, or even Dallas, one of our former teammates who'd had an unfortunate habit of collecting non-fatal bullet wounds before his lover finally brow-beat him into transferring to a less dangerous unit. No... this was Goat. He was cautious; he was extremely well trained; he was always in control. Hell, he'd been in the military longer than any of us, and was likely a better soldier than even Sarge or Reaper, for fuck's sake. He'd just... never wanted command. Never needed it. He'd once told me that he just wanted to do his job, to keep the people around him alive. To keep me, the soldier he'd most recently been mentoring, alive.

"He won't die. He won't." A commotion sounded outside the nanowall, and I turned to see a bed prepped and ready just as Reaper had ordered. The wall rippled, and Sarge and Reaper burst through, carting Goat between then. Even with Reaper's warning, I had no way of being prepared for the carnage. What had been Goat's throat was ripped apart like so much fresh meat, and I swallowed back bile at the sight. As they carefully lifted our teammate onto the bed, Dr. Grimm demanded to know what had happened. I steadied Goat on the bed and barely caught Portman's reply. Demons and devils... I couldn't know what Goat had meant with that, but 'Angel' could only mean me. I just hoped I wouldn't let him down. On the other side of Goat, Reaper began barking out orders as he lunged for the crash cart.

"Let's get this vest of him!" Destroyer and I yanked for the Velcro straps at Goat's shoulders, slipping it off him as gently as we could considering the speed we needed. Duke grabbed a wrist searching for a pulse, as Portman slid an IV stand toward me before I could ask for it.

"Got a weak pulse." Reaper didn't even pause to nod, just continued readying the crash cart.

"Angel, get me a line in here. Ready for direct transfusion." I prepared the IV as Portman and Duke slid Goat's coverall off his arm. My hands were steady as I slid the needle into Goat's arm with the ease of long practice, but they began to tremble as I turned to my elbow, seeking the large vein there. I cursed quietly; this was the absolute worst time for my ironic little phobia to rear its head. Portman yanked the needle from my hand and slid it carefully into my arm, not even bothering to harass me over my fears as he normally would. I nodded my thanks, choosing not to speak as Reaper barked for Kid to keep pressure on the wound. I passed the shaken rookie a wad of bandages, and went back to my own assignment.

"How's the pulse?" Duke shook his head, and I didn't need to hear him to respond to know what was happening. The EKG slowed to an ominous shriek.

"We lost the pulse." Reaper moved the crash cart again, his movements utterly controlled.

"OK, let's defib." He set the defibrillator to charge, and placed both patches without hesitating. The cart began to whine, and he lifted the paddles. "Clear!" I managed to grab the Kid's hand away at the last possible second. So, field med was definitely on his list of things to make sure he was re-trained in; Reaper would have been really pissed if he'd ended up with two patients due to rookie cluelessness. I bit my lip as Goat's pulse picked up, but slowed back to a crawl in only seconds.

"I've lost the pulse..." Duke trailed off as Reaper cursed, echoing what all of us likely felt.

"OK, gonna defib. Clear!" We all stared at the EKG as barely a blib registered. "Come on... No response."

"We're losing him." I didn't even recognize my voice.

"Sam, give me that adrenaline." With a full dosage of adrenaline in his chest, easily enough to send most men into seizures, Goat's heart managed to beat only a few times before the monitors began to shrill again.

"Come on, you son of a bitch," I whispered as Reaper barked that they were going again, his voice rough.

"Clear." This time when the EKG screamed, we could only stare, faces frozen. Reaper shook his head. "He's gone." Reaper turned away to kick some helpless piece of medical equipment. I didn't blame him.

My hands trembled as I reached up to close Goat's eyes and pull loose the lower dog-tag on his chest. I tucked it carefully into my pocket, and wrapped my hand around his, ignoring the tug of the now-useless needle in my arm. I would deal with that in a minute. Right now, Goat needed me for something else. God knew, I was the one of the few among us to understand Goat's faith. I might not have been Catholic, but at least I did believe... something that, in the R.R.T.S., was often rare. I opened my mouth to say a prayer for him and faltered. I didn't know the right one... Goat was _Catholic_. Wasn't there some specific prayer for the dead? One that he'd want... how could I not know it? It was strange, but that was the thought that finally sent tears pouring silently down my face.

I felt strong hands gently lifting my arm to slide out the needle and cover the slight wound with some gauze and a band-aid. _John._ Once he'd finished tending my arm, he softly gripped my shoulder, and that silent support was enough to give me the strength and composure to finally speak.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures..." As I spoke, the men stilled, listening out of respect for Goat, if not for God.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me..." John continued to stand beside me, offering comfort the only way he could. It was a way I knew wasn't easy for him; John only ever grieved alone. Had I not been there, he would likely have been standing to the side staring at the floor or a wall, trying to calm himself for the mission at hand. In that moment, through my grief, I could only be grateful for him, for the stalwart love that might just keep me sane through this loss. My free hand crept up to hold his tightly as I neared the end of the Psalm. I had to force myself to speak through the lump in my throat, as if, once I finished, Goat would truly be gone.

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen."

"Amen."

**Forgive me?**


	7. Back in Motion

**Sorry it's been a little bit of a wait with this chapter. I'd been trying to update once every week or so, but I was MIA for the Labor Day weekend. **

**Anyway, we're getting into the parts of the fic where things are going to be editted a bit timewise. Frankly, it's a pain in the butt trying to figure out the timeline considering everything is happening at once... So I'm pretty much winging it. Besides, they're at Olduvai for nearly 12 hours right? So I've got some literary time to kill. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! lol**

**As always, I own nothing except almost every movie Karl Urban has been in so far *beam***

**Oh! BTW, if you haven't yet, you outta wander over and check out my betaperson Askita's fic "Time Always Reveals." It tis quite fun if I do say so myself. Plus, I beta for her lol. **

**And I think that's enough author babble. On with the chappie!**

**Chapter 7 Back in Motion or Wash your hands, children.**

There was only a second or two of quiet in the wake of my words. I knew damned well that it was only out of love for me that Sarge allowed us all even that brief moment of silence. Now that I'd finished speaking, though, all bets were off.

"Doctor, you are going to tell me what the fuck is going on up here!" I cringed sharply at his tone, and Reaper pulled me to the side, out of the visual line of fire as I trembled. In all the years that I'd known Asher Mahonin, those long before he was Sarge, I'd rarely heard that bite to his voice. Dr. Grimm didn't have my experience with him however, and her voice was only confused and a little insulted as she demanded to know what he was talking about.

"Come here," Sarge barked. "Come here!" This time she complied with his order, and strode over to the body bag I hadn't noticed before. "This is what."

Sarge ripped the bag open, and she and I both let out gasps of horror at the vile thing he revealed. He glanced over at me for a moment, gauging my shocked expression, and lowered his voice back to a normal level.

"Have you found anything like this on your archeological digs? Is there any way this thing could have come from the outside?" She just continued to shake her head, giving answers I already knew. Mars was a dead planet; despite Portman's asinine suggestion to the contrary, there was no way anything could have been living outside the compound. I shivered under Reaper's hand as tempers rapidly frayed before my eyes. It was clear both Portman and Sarge were reaching their breaking points in the face of the thing that had killed Goat. I thought I'd likely be grateful for any interruption, anything that might keep them from coming to blows.

"That's not what we saw." My blood ran cold; that announcement was not exactly the distraction I'd had in mind. Reaper dropped his hand away as he moved out from behind me. "That's not what Goat and I shot at in Genetics."

"You telling me there's more of these fucking things?" Portman's voice was still caustic, but I didn't blame him. It took Sarge less than a second to respond with a demand to Dr. Grimm for information, the tactical side of him that made him such an excellent leader kicking into high gear. He ordered Destroyer, Portman, and the Kid to check the surface entry point she mentioned, and Mac to arm the crap out of Pinky in hopes of securing the Ark.

"There's one other door..." Her voice trailed off, and I wondered why her face was so strangely solemn. Sarge demanded the location, but it was Reaper who answered, his voice so cold I could hardly stand it.

"The entrance to the archeological dig." In the wake of that statement, I felt a painful realization hit me: Reaper meant to go there, to face his nightmares and dredge up all the emotional trauma he'd still never really dealt with. Sarge would go with him, at least, but I was going to be left here with two ghastly bodies and the doc. The fact that Sarge hadn't already assigned Duke and I a place to search told me that as well as if he'd said it out loud. I swallowed tightly. A thought hit me then, and I spoke up as I knew I needed to.

"Sarge, the men need to at least wash their hands and faces before they do fucking anything." The look the men (barring Reaper who likely guessed what I meant) all turned on me was utterly incredulous, and I continued before Portman could say what they were all likely thinking. "Even if all of you hadn't been swimming through the kind of filth that could make even the smallest cut an infectious nightmare, you all came in contact with Goat." I did my best to keep my voice from cracking as I said his name. "I don't have anything conclusive on what was in Carmack's blood yet, but if one of these _things_ is the carrier..." I nodded toward the bag. "The infection could possibly pass from Goat's skin and blood to each of us."

"She's right, Sarge." I shot Reaper a grateful look. Sarge clenched his jaw, and finally nodded.

"You heard her. Make it quick." Kid and Destroyer were quick to comply, and after only a little hesitation, Portman and Duke followed them over to the sink. "Use the soap, goddamn it. Don't waste your time over there!"

I swallowed a mildly hysterical giggle at the sight of the burly Marines all washing up in the sterile sink like a group of school boys under 'Mommy' Sarge's watchful gaze. Hell, his hands were even propped on his hips the same way I clearly remembered Ma Mahonin having a habit of doing. Reaper raised an amused eyebrow at my aborted chuckles, and I marveled again at his ability to damn near read my mind. Portman finally moved out of the way after rinsing out his mouth (and was I ever glad that I didn't share the taste of shit in my mouth) making way for Sarge and Reaper to strip off their gloves and roll up their sleeves. I realized that I hadn't noticed if the other men had even bothered with that much and grimaced, the disgust chasing away the little bit of mirth I'd managed. Sarge finished first and he turned to dry his hands with rough, impatient motions, while Reaper continued with the thoroughness he'd had beaten into him during medic training.

"Hey, Sarge," I said quietly. His reply of simply 'What?' was every bit as impatient as his hand drying had been. I just nudged him with my arm. "Be careful, Ash, 'kay?"

"I know how to do my job, Angel. I don't need you telling me how." I sighed and shook my head as he strode angrily toward the door. I moved over to the space he'd left at the sink, busily washing my own hands, head ducked to hide the mild hurt at Sarge's dismissal. He'd been my friend a long time, and I knew, probably better than any of the men, just how badly it had shaken him to lose one of his men after going more than a year without another such death (His record was doubly impressive in the R.R.T.S. Most of the other teams averaged about a teammate every 5-6 months at the outside.) Still, considering how wrecked my own emotions were, it was hard not to take his attitude personally. A warm hand slid along the back of my neck as Reaper finished up and moved around me, leaning in closer now that most of the men had left the room.

"We'll be careful. I promise." I shivered at the feel of his breath against my ear, and nodded once, not trusting myself to look at him. He brushed his thumb along my pulse once more, and then I heard his footsteps as he strode purposefully after Sarge.

I settled myself and dried off my hands, deciding not to pull my own gear back on just yet. I much preferred to be without all the extra weight when hunched over a computer or microscope as I was rather sure I would probably be doing for a good bit of the mission from now on. I lifted my head as I turned back inward to the med lab and found Dr. Grimm standing with her arms crossed.

"So what exactly was that about?" I hoped she was only talking about Sarge's little testosterone moment and not what happened directly after. I was too damned drained to deal with the drama of explaining me and Reaper's relationship to his estranged sister. I decided to bluff and attempt to lead the conversation where I wanted it to go.

"Sarge and I go way back. He's like family, I guess." I kept my face relatively innocent. "I worry about him. He's not too keen on that, though." I sat myself down at the computer I'd commandeered and checked to see if the scan had matched the sample with anything so far. When she stayed quiet, I glanced back over, hoping to see her occupied by something else. Instead, I was all but smacked in the face with that damned hereditary Grimm eyebrow. How did people even manage to raise just the one, anyway? I'd tried for months when I was little and had never managed it (My Trekkie of a father had been amused as hell by my attempts though).

"How long?" she asked after a brief glance away to assure that Duke was otherwise occupied. He was carefully stowing Goat's body in the adjoining room and laying out the monster's as I assumed Dr. Grimm had asked him. "I'd hope I deserve to know that much at least. And God knows he's not going to say a word no matter how serious you two get to be."

I echoed her glance at Duke to reassure myself that there was no way he could overhear, and slid up my hand to mute the vocal on my earpiece as I tried to decide how to respond. My eyes dropped down to her hands, and I noticed she was gripping the chair next to mine tight enough to make her knuckles white. It was enough to make my eyes flicker back up to her face again. Her jaw was tight for all that she was trying to look casual about the situation. I sighed; she and Reaper were just too much alike. That thought led to a surprising comprehension for me. She really wanted to know... not because she was trying to pry, but because she really wanted to know her brother. And in the mess we were in, I was likely to be the only source of information she'd get. Like she'd said, Reaper was unlikely to tell her; he was just too stubborn to make that first move. I let out a long sigh.

"A year and a half, give or take a couple months where we were both pretty clueless on what the fuck was going on. After that, we just… were." I gave her a small smile and tugged out my dog tags from under my tank top. I flicked a finger over the extra. "This one's his. We each made a copy to swap after we finally managed to admit it was something serious."

"I see." I was surprised to find that I was fairly sure she did. Her eyes held more than a hint of pride. "He must have been a pain in the ass to get close enough that he'd admit it." I nodded wryly, keeping a wary eye on Duke wandering around across the room.

"He was a pain in the ass in general when I joined, actually. All 'women can't be soldiers', and 'Dammit Sarge, why'd you bring in a liability', etc." She snorted, and we shared an amused glance. "Then, we just... got used to each other. And then we realized we were horny and attracted to each other, and then, things sorta spiraled from there." That earned me an actual laugh, but caught Duke's attention. I sighed as he began to meander over. I'd have to wrap it up quick if I didn't want the man who was basically the team gossip finding out that I was in love with one of our teammates. I lowered my voice, feeling almost shy about discussing this.

"He's just... the best man I know." I raised my voice again, not too worried about Duke hearing what I said next. "I'd be pretty damned proud of him if I were you, Dr." She smiled at me.

"I am. I tend to be aggravated as hell with him, but I really am proud of him. Guess I didn't realize quite how much." She nodded as Duke reported that the monster was ready to go. I wondered just how she'd managed to wrap my teammate around her finger so quickly; generally he just faked the blind adoration. I shook my head as she began to walk back to the autopsy table. "Oh, and Angel," she said, looking back over her shoulder, "you can call me Sam."

**You all have probably realized I'm a review junkie by now, right? Feed my addiction!!**


	8. Testing Commences

**And I'm back! I'm feeling much better after having a good convo with homeric about the sitch. So all is well. Massive snuggles to everyone who gave me hugs and encouragement. The apology chap itself has been taken down, but yall know I love ya! **

**Anyway! Here's the next installment. Hopefully updates should be coming much faster from now til the beginning of November. At that point I'm going to be diving back into the novel I DIDN'T manage to get 50k on last NanoWrimo, and I'm determined to make some progress on that. So there will be a month-long hiatus at that point, but trust me, I'm in no way planning to make yall wait too long after that!**

**Chapter 8:** **Testing Commences or "Why I Don't Do Nanowalls"**

I watched Sam all but saunter back to Duke with the vague feeling that I'd just been hit by a truck. I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole "twin sister making nice with the girlfriend" thing, but I supposed I had to give her credit for trying. And she had done her best to keep Duke out of the loop. That had to count for something I supposed.

I drew my attention back to the computer screen in front of me. No matches found. I gnawed on my lip for a moment and then pushed to my feet. I needed some comparative samples, and fuck, if I didn't hate this part. Inoculating, vaccinating, bullying marines into admitting their symptoms: those I could do, with ease as long as I wasn't the marine in question. But autopsies? Those had never been my idea of a good time. I had a feeling these would be even less so. One was some kind of horribly deformed _thing _that made me want to hurl with just a glimpse, and the other was a man I'd had the utmost respect and loyalty to. I honestly wasn't sure which I was going to hate more. I grabbed some specimen containers and a couple syringes from my bag of tricks and strode over to where Sam was preparing to begin her examination of Goat's killer. She looked up as I approached and just simply moved over to give me room. It actually surprised me for a moment, until I mentally reminded myself that she likely knew exactly what I was needing and even why. It was almost surreal, having someone around who actually had some knowledge of my field. Other than Reaper, the men tended to be rather clueless; their outraged amusement over my insistence on hand-washing was no where near the first such situation.

I pulled on a pair of gloves from the box off to the side, wincing a little as the rubber snapped against my wrist. I surveyed the body lying on the table, and tried to decide where to take tissue samples from. There was nothing about this thing that made me want to touch it, but I needed answers. After a moment, I took the scalpel Sam was holding out to me and carefully scraped inside the creature's mouth and across the palm of one hand. I didn't know much about Goat's attack other than the fact that it resulted in the massive wound on his neck, but I was fairly sure those two places would have had the most contact with the thing. If any infection transferred to Goat would likely have originated from one of those two places. I sealed the containers, setting them and the scalpel on the tray, and picked up one of the syringes to draw a blood sample. It was darker than what I expected, nearly black and thick, and I swallowed back bile at the sight. That so did not look healthy. At least not healthy for a human. Who the fuck knew what was healthy for one of these things.

I set the filled syringe aside too and turned to enter the other room to collect samples from Goat's body. Then, I stopped, finding myself incapable of entering. This wouldn't be some dead thing, or even a stranger; this was Goat. It was bad enough I'd had to watch my friend die while I stood there helpless. I didn't think I could stand to add to the horror by trying to treat him as what he was now: nothing more than a lifeless, mangled corpse in an anonymous black body bag. I nearly threw up again at the thought, and had to take a deep breath in through my nose to try and calm down. A pair of hands reached to take the supplies from where they were dangling in my limp hands and I nearly jumped. Sam was staring at me with what I knew was likely pity and compassion.

"I've got this one. You could start running the other?" I could read the question in her voice and eyes. Could I trust her with this? I nodded tightly, with the way my hands were shaking and the fact that my feet seemed glued to the floor, I really didn't have an option. She squared her shoulders and moved through the doorway, not bothering to look back to see if I was heading over to my station. Honestly, that was probably the reason that I _could_ finally move again. Sam was obviously competent and she'd shown enough compassion that I felt confident she'd take care with Goat.

My hands were only just trembling as I readied slides of both blood and tissue from the thing and then inserted them into one of the sample slots of the med lab's diagnostic computer. I decided to let it run the standard tests once, just to see how they compared with Carmack's on this level. I'd download the digital samples to my own computer after that. The screen had just displayed the now almost ominous message of "No blood match found" when Sam sidled up next to me and inserted another set of slides. I swallowed and tried not to think of them as attached to a body.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked, her voice soft. Again, I nodded. She'd been more helpful that I might have expected from her and I was grateful, but I needed to do my job. It was likely the only thing that was going to keep me focused.

"I can take it from here." I got the testing going on the second set of samples, ignoring the voices from the other end of the room the same way I normally tuned out the comm chatter from the other men. I waited for the test to finish running and mused that there'd been surprisingly little of that; maybe I'd just been too distracted to notice. I did notice when gunfire sounded over the comm; I sighed. That shit was really getting old. Then Reaper reported back: Mac was gone. I cursed under my breath, too weary to feel guilt or sorrow over our quiet tech. I'd feel it in spades later, assuming any of us survived to have a later. The screen blinked at me, offering a welcome distraction.

"What the fuck?" No blood match for Goat either? There was no way Goat had been in contact long enough for the infection to progress like Carmack's had. Could the sample haven gotten contaminated? "What.... the... fuck." I transferred the data to the server so I could retrieve it at the other computer. I raised my head to ask Sam about the sample, only to see Duke reaching out to grasp the thing's head in his bare hands and hold it's mouth open as Sam shoved her hand and then arm down its throat for reasons I could only guess at.

"Oh my god, that is so fucking unsanitary," I muttered to myself. Who knew what kind of crap Duke might pick up from that thing's mouth? I debated on calling out a warning, but figured it was already a waste of breath. Duke was practically salivating over the blonde doctor, and I doubted anything would be able to drag his attention away from her. I shook my head, and settled in front of the computer. "I just hope he doesn't cut himself on those teeth..."

I pulled up the data from both of the new samples and uploaded each of them in to my program, setting the scan to run through the most comprehensive comparison study the software was capable of. I needed a side-by-side look at absolutely everything physiological about these two men, as well as that thing. If Carmack and Goat _were_ infected by that thing, I wanted to know how exactly it would affect the tissue and what kind of time frame we'd have if someone else ended up infected. Any clue as to _how_ the infection was spreading would help too.

I tried to ignore the banter between Duke and Sam, but there was little else to focus my attention on. It was hard to keep calm about it; my emotions had been a mess since Goat's death, and now I was all but seething inside at Duke. Fuck, Goat was dead on the table in the other room, and he was flirting. I took a deep breath and forced down the anger. I had a good idea why Duke was actually doing it: different people dealt with grief differently, and Duke was one of those people who tended to respond by clinging to life. In this case, his libido was screaming sex=life and trying desperately to get some. And it wasn't like Duke was anywhere near as close to Goat as I had been. Granted we all lived in the same room, but he was rarely placed on missions with Goat, and really that was where the tightest bonds were usually formed. Intellectually, I knew Duke was no more close to Goat than I had been to Mac. Emotionally, I still found it to be incredibly disrespectful.

Thus, I was relieved to see him backing away from the autopsy table and head toward the nanowall. Relieved but confused. Where the fuck could he be going? I called out that question to Sam.

"I need a power bone saw to crack the chest. He's going to get me one." Her voice was a little smug in the way women get when they've managed to get a sexy guy to jump through hoops. I groaned.

"Are you kidding me? Please don't start something with him that you won't finish... Please?" I begged half-halfheartedly. She only shot me a small smile over her shoulder, and I groaned. I never thought Duke was that charming... though, maybe she was just feeling the same strain we all were. She spoke up, maybe to try to even out the score between us, so to speak.

"He's not just into my mind." It was one of the weirder things I'd heard lately, and I told her so. Hell, her mind was likely down at least couple pegs on the list of things he was into about her. She shook her head, bending back to down to work as she replied. "I mean, he's actually attracted to me… not just looking to further his career. In case you missed it, women out-number the men here. Since they've pretty much got their pick of the crop so to speak, most of the men tend to look at us in terms of advancement instead of sexual partners."

I blinked; she sounded so matter-of-fact about it, while I'd have been pissed as hell in that sort of environment. Plus, it was just weird somehow. Sexist cliché though it might be, I was just more used to hearing about women using sex as a promotion tool. I shook my head.

"You know, that's just bizarre, right?" She nodded.

"That's what makes him rather... refreshing, I guess." I chuckled quietly, and then was rather shocked to realize I had done so. Apparently, the little session of girl talk had done a fair amount to calm my churning emotions.

I shook my head at myself and glanced down at the screen to check the status of my scan. Almost 90% complete. Hopefully, I was very close to getting some answers. Just then the lights flickered on and off startling me. Sam's head shot up too, and I could see her gaze darting about the room as the lights continued to flicker.

"What the... oh shit!" I spun back around to check my computer. If I'd lost all the data... But no, the screen was still on. 95% complete. Apparently the computers were connected to a back up power supply. "Thank God," I breathed. I pounded a hand against my chest, and glanced over at Sam sheepishly. I'd nearly given myself a heart attack, and if she was anything like her brother, Sam would likely be amused as hell by it. She wasn't paying the slightest attention though. I heard her call out for Duke, and then make her way over to the nanowall and enter a code, allowing her to step through.

"Oh, that is not a good idea." I rose and reached for my rifle, and was heading to the wall myself when the wall closed in front of me. "Shit." I hit main button, but the wall didn't open. The lights continued their mad dance making me dizzy. It was also creeping me out a little. I was now alone, in a Mars med lab, with only a pair of corpses for company, and the lights were tripping out. "Oh great, 'cause this isn't so totally out of a freaking horror movie."

After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, the nanowall opened again, and I was relieved to see Sam step back through. That relief vanished as Sam turned to look behind her, concern written across her face. I turned to look at what had her worried, and saw Duke standing with his weapon pointed as something on the ground I couldn't make out. Then something moved in the shadows behind him, and Sam screamed. I was already moving, lunging through the nanowall, my rifle up and ready to fire. The creature slashed out at Duke, knocking him to the floor. Part of me was mentally cataloging the chance that the brief contact might have infected my teammate, but the rest had coolly waited for an opening, and fired the moment Duke was out of the way. I heard him curse as he tried to fire only to find his rifle jammed. The fucking thing was darting in and out of the shadows, trying to lunge back after its prey, but I kept up the spray of bullets. Duke pulled out his hand gun and began firing, climbing to his feet as the thing ducked back from the point blank range of Duke's weapon.

"Come on!" Sam screamed from behind us and Duke began to run for the nanowall. I darted in a step or two ahead of him.

"Close it, Sam! You gotta close it!" I ducked out of the way as Duke all but leaped into the med lab. Sam slammed on the button, then recoiled in horror as she came face to face with the thing now sealed into the wall itself. She threw herself back, tripping and falling onto Duke. I was moving to help them, when to my utter disgust, the thing actually opened its mouth and detached and somehow threw its tongue.

"What the fuck!" I cringed back instinctively, and both Sam and Duke ducked, their eyes wide with shock. The tongue landed just past their heads and slid along the floor for another few feet. We all stared at each other a moment, gasping for breath, and then Duke spoke.

"That's why I don't do nanowalls." Duke lowered his head to press it against Sam's cheek as she clutched him, and I looked away, feeling like I was intruding on something private. The thing in the nanowall blinked, and I shuddered. As of right then, I didn't do nanowalls either.

**Alrighty, hope you liked it! As always, reviews make me smile like crazy. BTW, since I did have another chapter 8, I'm not sure if the reviews are going to work. If not, I'm more than happy with anon reviews, and I'll just PM reply those of you I already know!**


	9. Rise and Fall

**Another short one this time. I have a feeling you'll figure out why.**

**Chapter 9: Rise and Fall**

We all needed a minute to settle after yet another round of near death experience. I moved a few feet away from the pair on the floor, giving them as much privacy for their moment of adrenaline induced cuddling as I could. Either Sam or Duke would probably thank me for it later, and really, considering that I'd likely be taking a moment to cling to Reaper if he'd been close by, I'd feel like too much of a hypocrite if I pulled them apart. Instead, I took a few deep breaths, in through my nose and out through my mouth, getting as close to meditation as I ever did. Then, with a nervous swallow, I grabbed a large pair of forceps off the autopsy tray and advanced on the de-bodied tongue lying on the floor.

It wasn't moving, which I took to be a sign that what I was about to do would be at least somewhat more safe than it might have been otherwise. I looked it over a moment, trying to decide where it was likely to be the sturdiest. I needed to pick it up, not accidentally rip it into pieces, after all. I noticed what looked like some sort of spine at one end and wondered what purpose a barbed tongue might have for the species. I then decided I probably didn't want to know. I leaned over to reach out gingerly and clamped the forceps around the tongue a few inches of the way down on the side with the spine, thinking to immobilize it the same way I would a snake's head. The spine looked nasty whatever it did, and I certainly didn't want to chance it catching on my skin. Hopefully, my jury-rigged technique would work.

I rose back to a standing position, holding my arm out as far from me as possible. Now, which table to put the thing on? After a moment, I headed toward one near to the autopsy table. Sam could have the joy of taking this thing apart. I was about to set it down when Duke came up behind me.

"Man, what's the deal with this?" He shifted around to get a closer look. "Is that really it's- Shit!" He jumped backward as the tongue came to life as I held it. I struggled not to drop the forceps as it writhed about, shaking and shimmying in an apparent escape attempt that creepily spoke of some kind of intelligence. Duke continued to back away as I fought with the thing, and then, just as suddenly as it had come to life, it fell limp and still again.

"Well, that was different." Sam had apparently come up behind Duke but had backed away from the zombie tongue before I'd noticed her. Now, she was inching around to the front of me, staying far enough that she wouldn't come in contact with the thing if it started flopping around again, but close enough that she could study it thoroughly. "It looked like some sort of autonomic response to stimuli."

"So not actually a conscious process, then." I breathed a sigh of relief as she shook her head and inched closer.

"I don't think so, no. More like the way a jellyfish can still sting you even after it's dead. Just nerves firing for... whatever reason." She waved me over to the same table I'd been originally heading toward, and I lowered the disgusting thing down. I still held it with the forceps while Sam jury-rigged a couple bandages and sterile tape into a rough restraint at either end. Only when that was done did I ease the forceps off and replace them on the tray. I looked over at Sam and raised my eyebrows.

"You have fun with this." She shot me a disgusted look, and turned to stalk back over to where she'd thrown her bone saw in the mad dash to get to safety.

"Gee thanks, but I think I'll get back to the _other _mutant autopsy first, if that's alright with you." I grinned and tossed her a smug little wave.

"Hey, Duke, come 'ere. I need to clean that wound up." He looked down at his arm as if surprised to find that it was hurting.

"It's no big thing, Angel. Not even worth a bandage if you ask me." I ignored him and grabbed up a bottle of alcohol from one of the shelves.

"I'll be the judge of that. No matter what I need to clean it, though. God only knows what was on that fucker's claws." I pulled him down into a chair near my computer. I glanced at it, noting that the scan had finally finished, and then twisted open the bottle. "Now, this is gonna sting. I'm sure a big strong Marine like you won't cry like a baby in front of me and Sam, right?" I grinned evilly as his gaze shot to the side to stare at Sam.

"Now that ain't fair," he muttered quietly. I pulled the ripped edges of his coverall away and wiped off as much of the blood as I could with a swatch of gauze. Once the slash was readily visible, I saw that Duke had actually been right: the cuts were fairly minimal.

"Must have been more of a glancing blow..." I looked at it a moment more, just to make sure I wasn't wrong, and then, without any warning, doused the cuts with the alcohol. I was rewarded by a string of curse words that Duke tried, manfully, to muffle as best he could. I chuckled; nothing like a little standard first aid to turn big strong Marines into whining babies. "There, I'm done." I lowered my voice. "You can go back to hitting on her." He tried to look like he didn't know what I was talking about, but I just waved him away and returned to my seat at the console.

"100% complete. Let's see what you all have in common, shall we?" I began to scan through the test results, absently noting one fact or another. Heightened red and white blood cell count; heightened immune response, which really made sense considering the white blood cell count. I stopped and blinked at what the screen told me next. The cells were actually dividing? Now? This long after the samples had been removed from the subjects? And fuck, they were doing so pretty damned rapidly. A thought occurred to me, then, not much more than a snippet of conversation, but in light of it, I moved frantically to page through to the chromosome maps of each of my subjects. With a quick click of my fingers, I brought all three maps up onto the screen side by side.

"Oh holy fucking son of a bitch." I sat back and scrubbed my hands over my eyes. Maybe I'd just read it wrong. I leaned forward again, and counted the chromosome pairs under my breath. "21, 22, 23, 2... Shit shit shit!" I pushed myself out of my seat abruptly. "Sam, you need to take a look at this. As in now."

"I'm a little busy right this second." I turned and stalked over to the autopsy table, annoyed beyond measure that I had to wait to show her what I'd discovered. I took to last few strides to stand on the opposite side of her from Duke. A quick glance identified what looked to be a heart and liver in the tray next to the creature's body. OK, so I supposed she did have her hands full... literally in this case as she lifted up a set of kidneys and dumped them next to the other pair of organs. I wrinkled my nose a bit.

"Oh that just smells delightful." Duke nodded at me, and opened his mouth as if to reply, when Sam interrupted us both.

"It's had its appendix removed." I blinked at her. What the hell? She matched my incredulous expression. "It's human." My mind raced at the implications of her discovery paired with mine. I needed to tell her, but fuck if I knew what to say.

"Sam-"

"What the fuck!" Sam and I spun around to find that Duke had turned around to face the room where Goat's body lay, or had lain, more accurately. Now, he stood only a few feet on the other side of the window, a gruesome parody of the man he had been. Dimly, I heard Sam's gasp of fear, but I was unable to speak. I was drawn forward by the sight of my friend, my jaw slack with grief and horror. Still standing eerily silent, Goat met my eyes, and then carefully drew his hand up to make what was unmistakably the sign of the Cross. Then, he threw himself forward, lunging at the window that separated him from us. I screamed as he slammed his forehead into the pane, leaving a little blood behind as he retreated a few steps only to repeat the process again and again. Comprehension dawned, and I was screaming again, shouting at him to stop, just stop dammit!

"He's killing himself!" I panicked, trying desperately to push past Sam and Duke to get to the door. "Let me go. Let. Me. GO!" I smacked my fist backwards at one of my captors and heard Duke cry out in pain as my arm was released. I was free. Just in time to see Goat pound his face into the window one last time. He slid to the ground, leaving a sickening smear of blood and brain matter behind. "G... Goat..." I pressed my face against the glass to peer down at him, somehow still believing he'd stand up. "Goat, get up. Please, get up," I begged.

"Goat knew he was turning," Sam's voice was horror-stricken, and yet somehow awed at his actions. My mind all but stuttered, shaken by the meaning. He _knew_; he died knowing he was turning into a monster. He _killed himself_ to stop it.

I am not weak; there have been few people to ever dare to claim that I am. But in that moment of realization that my devout Catholic friend had taken his own life, had damned himself in his own mind, to keep himself from hurting _us_... In that moment, I shattered. A keening cry all but ripped from me, and I crumbled to the ground beneath the window as Sam and Duke watched helplessly. Great wracking sobs still pouring from me, I curled into myself and mourned.


	10. Things Get Worse

**So, I'm back! And just to let you know, this chapter is where things are REALLY going to start changing. After all, I've thrown another character into the mix of this whole story, and Angel's altering events just by existing, frankly. **

**One major change (that she actually **_**didn't**_** cause) has to do with the gaping movie plot hole that I've recently discovered. In case y'all hadn't noticed, the scene where Sam is showing Sarge and John all the research data is down in Carmack's office, which hey, that makes at least a fair amount of sense right? What DOESN'T make sense, is that later, when John goes back for her, Sam has somehow managed to have the tongue and brain matter from two of the guys all with her BACK IN CARMACK'S lab... Now that section is one of the few places where the action is happening pretty much in the space of time the movie is happening. It's all of 5 minutes max: there's no way Sam could have made a run back to the med lab to get all of that and bring it back down to where she was in that amount of time. And really, why would she even go back to Carmack's lab on her own if she didn't have to? **

**So, that being said, I decided to have them go down to Carmack's lab to retrieve the rest of the tapes, and then back to the med lab together (for reasons that will be revealed in this chapter in a minute.) Of course, considering that Angel's our narrator, I won't actually be writing most of that scene anyway, but I felt like it was something I should explain just in case y'all noticed people weren't where they were in the movie lol. **

**Chapter 10: Things Get Worse or Why it's Important to Turn your Mouthpiece Back On.**

I stayed all but catatonic beneath that window. I had no real concept of the passing of time, knees up to my chest, the tears still streaming down my face. I was vaguely aware of Sam and Duke talking, their voices quiet. I had no idea what was actually being said; they could have been discussing the monsters we were facing or even the weather for all I knew. For all I cared. I simply allowed myself to break; the hold I had kept so tightly on my grief since Goat died (Since he died the _first _time, my treacherous mind broke in) just fell to pieces.

After minutes or hours, a burst of noise and motion at the nanowall tugged at my attention. Sarge, Kid, and Reaper surged through, a pair of bodies loading the two older men down. At the sight of Destroyer and Portman, I sunk down even more into my fetal position. There was a cry of despair from Duke, and a part of me felt for him because fuck if I didn't know how he was feeling. The rest of me, however, was focused on the fatalism that was sinking over me. We were all going to die; there wasn't any doubt in my mind about that fact.

Dimly I heard Sarge demand answers about the thing stuck in the wall, the blood still staining the glass above me, and then with shock and anger in his voice, about 'his Specialist' cowering on the floor. Sam explained the blood, and I all but whimpered at hearing Goat's fate spoken aloud again. That tiny sound brought boots pounding in a few shorts strides around the autopsy table, and then John's voice said my name in a grief torn sigh. That, finally, was enough to pull me out on my crouch in a frantic scramble to reach him.

I practically lunged at him, not giving a shit that the frenzied motion had all three of our other teammates staring. Neither did John apparently; his arms came crashing around me, pulling me in tight to his chest. I buried my face in the side of his neck, desperate for the sweat soaked scent of him and as much skin as I could reach. Knowing what I needed, John slid a hand under the edge of my tank top to wrap around my back, and the other gripping me firmly by the neck and shoulders. I babbled, reduced to scattered words and phrases, all nearly indecipherable. John just held on, muttering softly that he was there, that I was safe, that it was going to be OK. I shuddered against him, knowing that only the first was true.

After perhaps only a few minutes, I heard John chiming in on the conversation I'd been ignoring in my panic. Apparently, they'd found two more dead scientists. I shivered, praying both of them were really dead. John rubbed my back trying to sooth the shakes away.

Sam and Duke were the ones to answer Sarge's demands about Carmack's whereabouts. I didn't have to see my old friend's face to know the news had shocked him to the core. I began to ease my hold on John, as Sam kept talking trying to convince Sarge that the scientists on Olduvai hadn't been doing anything like the horrors we were seeing.

"You're wrong, Sam," I whispered, causing John to lift my head and search my eyes, trying to understand what I was saying.

"It must be something environmental or viral."

"No, it's not."

"I don't know..." Sam didn't, but I did. I shuddered again. I was trying to get up the courage to release my hold on John completely when the sound of a gunshot had my head whipping around to see Sarge pulling his handgun out of the monster-Carmack's mouth. Sarge, began to bark orders, as if he hadn't just willfully killed what had once been a man in cold blood.

"Kid, you and Duke get back to the dig and make sure the other dead scientists are really dead." I swallowed as the pair stood almost as one and left the room without saying a word. Sarge's gaze turned to me, and my hand clenched at John's jacket reflexively as I read the coldness in his eyes. "Angel, you go with them."

John tensed, and I could tell he was about to say something, but I just shook my head slightly and pushed away from him. Slowly, feeling as if I was somewhat detached from my own body, I walked to the table with my gear, pulling my coverall from around my waist and back over my shoulders as I walked. I recognized that I was likely in shock, but couldn't bring about the effort to care. Behind me, I heard Sarge interrogating Sam, her voice trembling as she responded. I pulled my vest on, only fastening the Velcro haphazardly as I reached for my weapon. I turned to see Sarge stalking closer to her. Something about the terror in her face managed to reach through the haze I was functioning in. She was telling the truth... but that didn't mean she was right. I took the few steps to her side and spoke quietly.

"They all have 24 pairs of chromosomes." Sam and Sarge turned to stare at me, disbelief in her eyes and just the same cold rage in Sarge's. Sam shook her head, opening her mouth to deny what I'd said, but I just kept speaking. "I don't know how, though I can guess a geneticist might." I nodded meaningfully at Carmack's body. "All I know is that, that's the commonality. That's the change that caused their condition."

Sam took a few steps back, and reached out to steady herself on one of the tables. I was going to go to her, to try to offer what comfort I could when Sarge's voice stopped me cold.

"Why are you still here? I told you to go." I turned to face him, confused. This was what I was here for after all. "I gave you an order, soldier." I froze, searching his face. There was nothing of Asher there, nothing of my friend. Just Sarge, and that would have shaken me if I'd been collected enough to feel it.

"Yes, Sir." I didn't trust myself not to say anything else, so I just spun on my heel and headed out the door, not bothering to even glance back at John. I reached the airlock and paused for a moment in front of the schematic still up on the screen, making sure I'd memorized the turns I'd need to reach the dig. "Duke, Kid, I'm entering the airlock now."

They didn't answer me, which was odd, but I just chalked it up to the pair of them keeping silent in hopes of avoiding the attention of our once-human hunters. I moved silently through the halls, barely noticing when my feet stepped off of hard metal grating and onto hard dirt floors.

"Sarge, we've got a problem. One dead scientist is missing." Kid's voice was shaking.

"Kid, Duke, I'm approaching to your position. Wait for me to catch up." Once again, they didn't answer, and I felt a chill creep up my spine through the cold shock I'd been functioning under. I picked up the pace, not worried about the noise I was now making, and I approached my last turn to reach the pair almost at a run. I shot around the corner to my left, and gunfire erupted all around me. I shrieked in pain and tried to duck back around the corner. I looked down at myself in shock. My vest hung almost open on my left side, the barely attached Velcro having pulled free while I ran, and I'd taken two shots high in my shoulder on that side. I tried desperately to stay calm, as Duke and a shaken, terrified Kid shouted out their report to Sarge and John. With a deep breath, I dropped my gun to hang behind me, and pressed hard against the wounds with both hands. It wasn't going to do a lot of good; I was fairly sure the bullets had gone right through, and I was bleeding heavily on both sides of my shoulder. Kid was babbling now, all but helpless with guilt at what he'd done.

"I thought she was one of them... How could.. I didn't know it was her! She wasn't supposed to be down here. How was I supposed to know it was her?" I half expected Duke to scream at the younger man, but he looked just as shocked as I was. Had they really not heard me? My mind raced, and my stomach rolled as I realized I hadn't ever turned my mouthpiece back on after talking to Sam back in the med lab. They really hadn't known I was coming.

"It's... it's not as bad as it looks." I wasn't sure who I was trying to convince: the guys or myself, but I knew damn well from the feel of blood running down my chest and my back that I was lying through my teeth. Still, it seemed to calm Kid at least; at my words, he stopped babbling and moved to support my on my other side. I leaned on him, trying to keep my balance as we started back down the hall to the airlock. I did my best to keep Duke from seeing the amount of blood I was actually losing; I could tell he was as close to breaking as I'd been earlier, and we couldn't afford him yet another one of our men shattering.

"Report! Goddammit report! What the fuck is happening?" Sarge and John were both yelling over each other, trying to find out what had happened to trigger shots and the frantic shouts of the two men with me. Duke answered, trying to keep calm enough to relay the situation.

"Friendly... friendly fire. Angel's been hit. I repeat, Angel's been hit." I cringed at the silence following that statement, not wanting to imagine the looks on the faces of the two men I cared most about. Sarge finally responded.

"Get back to the airlock. We'll meet you there. Move, now!" Duke answered a shaky affirmative, and we kept going, moving as quickly as we could, all thought of stealth long forgotten. John actually met us before we reached the airlock, taking Kid's place at my side, supporting almost all of my weight as we half-ran for the airlock. I kept my hand pressed firmly against the wound under my vest, now as much to keep John ignorant of the damage as to try to staunch the bleeding. We caught up with Sarge and Sam just past the airlock, and we all headed straight for the med lab. My legs were shaking by that point, and I could tell I was growing weaker by the minute. Kid and Duke dropped back, taking up guard positions outside the lab.

We'd barely entered when yet another shoe dropped. What sounded like a chainsaw suddenly roared into life across the complex, back in the direction of the Ark. A panicked Pinky reported that something was trying to cut through the Ark door.

"Reaper, now!" Sarge spun back to the door, while John stared in shock, not wanting to release me.

"You want me to just leave them here?"

"Dr. Grimm's got her. You've got a job to do." With one last pained look from me to Sam, John cursed and lowered me next to a chair and followed after Sarge. The door slid closed, shutting out the noise of the chainsaw, and I finally allowed myself to collapse. Sam hurried toward me, and pulled open my vest. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened in shock. I met her anguished gaze and spoke, part of me relieved to know the others wouldn't hear me over my inactive comm.

"Don't tell John. It's worse than it looks."

**So, don't hate me? If it makes yall feel any better, I'm already nearly 2 pages into the next chapter! :) Now.. just repeat after me: why do we create original characters? So we can abuse the hell out of them!**


	11. Agony

**Told you I'd have this up quick! **

**Chapter 11: Agony or Yet Another Reason to be Afraid of Needles**

Sam swallowed, and then suddenly moved to grab bandages, needles, and disinfectant. I pealed off the vest and the top half of my coverall, biting back a scream as the blood soaked fabric stuck to the wounds. I swayed, feeling slightly dizzy from pain and blood loss. I wasn't sure how long I could stay conscious with the way I was feeling, so I forced myself to sit up straight in hopes of holding on to wakefulness. Sam returned with her supplies and began to wash away as much of the blood from around the wounds as she could, a near useless effort by my judge. I just kept bleeding too heavily for her to make any headway.

"I'll have to sew those shut. I'm not sure they'll-"

"No," I broke in, my mind giving me the hard truth. "Just throw a couple bandages on. Get them tight and stop the bleeding as best you can."

"Angel, you can't be serious... You know you'll-"

"I know!" I couldn't bring myself to let her finish, knowing what she would likely say. Judging from the location of the bullet holes, Kid hadn't hit any major organs, but I still had _four bleeding bullet holes _in my shoulder. It didn't take a genius to gauge the severity of my wounds. "Look... there's just not enough time, Sam. If one of those things gets through the Ark..."

I trailed off, and after a moment, she nodded. Her movements tense, she disinfected both the entrance and exit wounds, pausing the allow me to curse just like Duke had barely an hour earlier. Then she wrapped my shoulder tightly, layering on as many bandages as she possibly could and still leave me some range of motion. Then, almost as an after thought, she again cleaned around the bandages and helped me get the vest back on, hiding the extent of the damage as best we could. Then she pushed away from me, head ducked, trying to hide the fact that her eyes were glistening. After a moment, driven by a need to break the suffocating silence, I spoke up, talking to myself as much as to her.

"This is all so fucked up. It was supposed to be a routine mission. A nasty one maybe, to need all of us... but still just a routine mission." She didn't answer, just began to fiddle with bits of equipment. I went on absently. "I mean, I never expected anything like this. Goat, and Carmack. The freaky detaching tongue and that fucking 24th chromosome crap. How the hell are those even possible anyway?.." I trailed off again. Sam's head had shot straight up at the mention of the extra chromosomes, and she turned to stare at me with thoughtful eyes.

"You didn't hear, did you?" I shook my head, as she turned to grab a few syringes, bending to take some sort of sample from both Destroyer and Portman. What kind of sample, exactly, I couldn't see."You were right; Carmack re-created C24. He and his team actually tested it on a human being, a death row inmate of all people." I stayed quiet; I figured I need to save my strength as best I could, and besides, I didn't have a clue how to respond to that. "That inmate was the patient zero; he's the one who's been infecting everyone else. I just... I wasn't sure how, or why." Samples in hand along with a pair of forceps and some more gauze, she moved over to the disembodied tongue, releasing the restraints from the barbed end. "But I wonder..."

She wet down some of the gauze with one of the samples and dripped it over the tongue. I jerked as the tongue shot up, aiming for the gauze she held out of reach.

"That was some of Portman's brain matter." She wet down another piece of gauze, and I tensed as she dripped it over the tongue as well. When nothing happened, she let out a long slow sigh. "That was Destroyer's." My jaw dropped at the implications.

"It's sensing them... the ones who'll be infected..." She nodded, grimly.

"Or at least the people who'll be infected _the same way_." I shook my head, confused by what she was saying. "Lucy had the extra chromosome pair, remember?" I nodded, still not sure where she was going with all of this. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slim vial of something, filling a syringe with the contents. That done, she came back over to me, her eyes searching my face. "Lucy wasn't a monster, Angel." When she took my arm, I was too caught up in confusion to think to fight her as she injected me with the clear substance. "I don't think you will be one, either."

There was one long heartbeat as Sam checked almost absently checked her watch, and I sat frozen, unable to react at all. Then I was surging to my feet, the empty syringe falling to the floor as Sam took a quick step back. Without speaking, she showed me the vial in her hand, and I read the label almost automatically. Chromosome 24.

"Sam... Sam, what have you done?" My voice shook, and I had to force down my panic. She still looked fairly calm and I latched on to that fact.

"Hopefully, I just saved your life." My knees went weak, and I groped behind me for the chair, all but crashing back into it. She leaned in closer. "Think about it, Angel. That disgusting _thing_ never reacted to you at all. You should... You should be fine." She tried valiantly, but due to her lack of conviction, she wasn't nearly as convincing as she'd probably hoped. Still, she made a valid point. There was a least a chance that I'd stay, well if not human, then at least sane and unlikely to kill the people I cared about.

"Shit," I breathed, and raised my hands to scrub at my face, only to stop as I noticed how bloody they still were. I pulled myself back to my feet and lurched over to the sink, feeling a not unexpected sense of deja vu as I washed my hands and forearms off. Then still leaning over the sink, I had the strength to ask, "How long until we know?"

"I can't be exactly sure, but I do have a rough time line from their patient zero. It took roughly 6 minutes to graft to his marker cells, and then 49 minutes from the time of injection, the visual mutations began to be seen." I noted with morbid approval that her voice had taken on its 'instructor' tone from earlier. I'd try to do the same; if I could think of the _subject,_ as opposed to _me_ being infected, I might be able to stay calm. "The problem is that considering they only tested one subject, and he weighed nearly double what... The time line could be hard to gauge."

"Probably less though, I'd imagine." She nodded. Another frantic voice, one I probably would have paid attention to for a while if I hadn't been so caught up by Sam's explanation, called insistently over the comm. I raised my head to catch her attention. "John's on his way."

"Good, he'll need to know about this." I turned, horrified, and she shook her head, reading my concern perfectly. "Not about you. Not until he has to, but about the rest of all this: definitely." Then John came rushing in and there wasn't any more time to discuss it.

"Angel? Why didn't you answer your comm? We gotta go now." Sam broke in before I could even think of answering, drawing John's gaze over to the table as she prepared for the same show-and-tell she'd given me. John tried to interrupt, insisting we leave, and Sam begged for just a minute more.

"We don't have a minute!"

"Then give her 10 seconds, John-ahh!" My voice dissolved into a near-wail as suddenly my skin seemed to turn itself inside out, the agony nearly causing me to black out. The spasms didn't last long, maybe 5 seconds tops, but they were easily some of the more painful of my entire life. I waved a frantic John off. "It's OK... It's OK... I just pulled my shoulder wrong." My eyes flickered to Sam, and she mouthed _4 minutes._ Apparently I was progressing faster than expected. We didn't have a lot of time.

"John, you need to listen to Sam. It's important." He reluctantly allowed her to tug him back to the table as she continued speaking rapidly, showing him the tongue's reaction and explaining her theories and the fact that not everyone would be infected. I couldn't pay the attention I'd have liked to; the pain came back in waves, almost every 20-30 seconds exactly, but I managed to grit my teeth against making any sound. Without my noticing, John was back at my side and taking my arm insistently.

"We gotta go now, Angel. Sarge is going to kill everyone if we don't get back in time." I let him pull me a long, pausing only to grab my pack as some nebulous instinct warned me to. "Dammit, Angel, leave it. We don't have-"

"We have to take it!" I didn't know why, but I was not going to leave the fucking thing behind. He opened his mouth to argue with me just as another round of pain rolled through me, reducing me to shuddering helplessly. I didn't meet his eyes, not wanting to see the fear for me that I knew would be in them. Keeping my head down, I insisted again. "We have to take it, John." He swore viciously and pulled the pack on his own back.

"Alright. We'll take it." He gave a nod to Sam who slid over to help me along, and then we were practically sprinting to the Ark. I could only concentrate on keeping upright; between my shoulder, the C24, and the sheer amount of blood I'd lost, I was suffering from some nasty vertigo. I didn't doubt I'd have stumbled more than once without Sam's arm supporting me.

The Ark was already charged for transportation when we reached it which, by the timing on the way _to _Olduvai, meant we were at least thirty seconds behind the others. Sam left my side to peer over Pinky's console.

"It's ready to go." John turned, his eyes darting from Sam's face to my own.

"Can two travel through at once?" he asked her. Judging from her shudder at the thought, it was probably a no.

"I, I wouldn't. There's no telling what the Ark could do." I thought of Pinky's ass-that-went-to-another-galaxy, and decided I didn't want either of them to risk it.

"John, you go through first. Then Sam. Then me." I could tell they both wanted to protest that, but I knew damn well it was the only way Sam would be safe. "Protect the civilian, John. I'm armed; she isn't." After a moment of his divided loyalties flickering across his face, he nodded.

"You're right. Shit." He grimaced, and then took the two quick steps to my side, crushing his lips to mine. "But I swear to God, if you don't come through on the other side, I _will _come back after you." He kissed me again. "Is that clear?" This time I kissed him just as fiercely, that fatalistic part of me terrified it might be the last time I could.

"Crystal."

He pulled away and strode to the center of the room, where the Ark itself was already waiting for him. He never slowed, just walked straight in to be sucked up and away. Sam and I didn't speak as we waiting for the Ark to ready itself again. I was too busy trying to keep my guard up through the pain, and she was deep in thoughts of her own. She didn't hesitate to say a word when the Ark came back online, just nodded once and then allowed herself to be carried away.

What followed was likely the longest thirty seconds of my life. With no one to see, I didn't bother to hide the shudders that continued to rip through me. Finally, that shining sphere reformed before me. I gritted my teeth and said a silent prayer that John and Sam would in fact be alive on the other side. Then I closed my eyes and stepped forward into the Ark.

**Whew that was a bit of a whirl to write. Review and let me know if you kept up!**


	12. Hard Truths

**Hey look! I live!! And better yet, there's an update! Massive thanks for being patient while November ended up with nothing but Nano, and December... well December was work hell, but I survived and all is well. So, without any further ado, here's the next chappie for you all! (Oh, btw, this has NOT been beta'd as askita is netless for the holidays. So if there are errors, I plead the fifth.)**

_Chapter 12: Hard Truths or Does Everyone Smell Funny to Anyone Else?_

Ark travel was even more unpleasant this time around. I wasn't even conscious of my feet hitting solid ground before I was throwing up bile. That threw off my balance enough that once I could feel my feet, I felt them slide out from under me, sending me crashing to the ground. I caught myself instinctively with my left arm and let out a whimper as the abused shoulder screamed at me. This time it was the other Grimm twin who helped me to my feet.

"How's the pain?" she whispered under the cover of the computer announcing that Ark travel had completely. I opening my mouth to answer only to shut it at another round of shudders. "So not good then, huh?"

I shook my head and leaned heavily on her. Only at that moment did I become aware of the scent that the pain in my body and the bile in my mouth had hidden. Blood, and buckets of it. I looked around with wide eyes at the sheer carnage littered about the room. A dim part of me noted with surprise just how many people had been killed rather than infected. It was a mark on the side of good for mankind; or would have been had anyone survived. Sam and I followed after John as he picked his way through the bodies, his eyes as horrified or more than I had ever seen them.

"Oh, my God..." We threaded our way through the corridors closest to the Ark chamber, as John continued calling out over the comms for the remaining members of our team. "Sarge, what's your position? Sarge, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear." It was like a weight lifted from my shoulders for a moment when Sarge finally responded. The moment didn't last long though. I heard John warn him not to kill everyone, and Sarge replied, his voice calmer than I would ever have expected. Then a pair of shots were fired. John looked back at me, and I could read the same sick certainty in his eyes that I was feeling. Sarge was not going to stop. We heard his tell the Kid to meet back in the Ark chamber, and we turned to retrace our steps to intercept them. Maybe once we were face to face, Sarge would listen to reason. At least, so I hoped.

Those hopes were soundly dashed as we finally reached his side. He was... cold. That was the only word that came to mind, cold and clinical. His only moment of agitation came while he was taking in my ragged appearance. Then, to my eyes at least, he seemed to twitch and his knuckles went white around his weapon, before the cold mask slid back into place and he turned away from me.

Sam seemed to take that as an invitation, and after propping me against the wall, she followed Sarge and began speaking a mile a minute, trying to come up with something that would limit the massacre he would likely commit. John, his eyes still worried as they tracked from his sister and back to me, came over and pulled me to lean against him. I sagged against him gratefully, and his arm banded tightly around my waist, drawing me in. Almost as if he were the antidote to the hell my body was putting me through, I felt the next several rounds of pain ease, and the shudders were slowly ceasing too. As they did, I nuzzled in to his neck, as much to comfort him as to comfort me. His scent, long familiar and beloved, soothed me.

Then, almost as if a switch had flicked on, his scent changed. An aroma almost of sunlight or summer, like every citrus grove in Florida flooding my nose at once, swept over me, thick enough that I could taste it on the back of my tongue. It was undeniably rich and healthy, and yet it freaked the hell out of me. I shoved away from John, near panicked at the change in him, who had been one of my few certainties. His eyes were wide as he tried to ease me back into his hands, but I couldn't find the breath to reassure him. I stumbled backward to fetch up against the wall again, my hands scrabbling for purchase. I glanced anywhere but at him, and found that the commotion had drawn Sarge and Sam's attention.

"Oh shit," I breathed. That was exactly what I hadn't wanted to do. "I'm OK... I'm OK. I just..." I trailed off as none of the three seemed to believe me. Sam hurried over to my side, her taller frame blocking me from the two others' sight. It was a brief reprieve, but it was long enough for me to find my composure. I nodded my thanks, and she turned to let them see me. I shook my head and forced a depreciating laugh. "I'm fine, guys. Just had some kind of a panic attack or something. Really, I'm fine."

It didn't take a genius to see they didn't believe me, but before they could press the issue, another commotion rolled up behind them. Duke had found Pinky. Sam was once again in motion, rushing over to check his neck before Sarge could open fire on the little coward. I honestly barely noticed; I was too distracted by the whiff of Sam I'd gotten just before she left my side. She smelled just like her brother now. Except for the strength of it (I didn't quite taste her as I had John), their scents were nearly identical. Fuck if I had any idea what it meant.

I didn't really have time to wonder at the change in their body chemistry (or, more accurately, the change in the way their body chemistry was appearing to my altered state). While I'd clung to the wall, Kid had appeared, bearing the news of an entire room of people still alive and safe. It should have been good news: a near miracle that someone had survived unharmed. Instead, I only felt horror as Sarge made it clear he expected our young teammate to go back and empty the room of every single pulse.

Through the horror, a small sense of pride grew in me, as the Kid grew a spine of steel in the face of those orders. Finally, I thought, I was looking at the soldier the young man could be, instead of the shaky Kid we all called him. He'd end up a damned good man if he survived this place. If any of us survived this place.

Without a conscious reason way, I pushed away from the wall, shrugging off Sam's hands as she tried to hold me back. I took a few steps toward Asher, and then all but gagged as a new scent assaulted my nose. He reeked, truly reeked. If Sam and John were a grove in full health, Asher was now the rotted fruit that had died on the tree.

Somehow, that powerful stench acted as a mental catalyst. My mind raced with a speed and a clarity I found myself terrified by. It pulled me from thought to comprehension to sheer revelation as I staggered forward, then straightened, my legs suddenly holding firm. I kept my gaze on Asher, and my mouth went dry as memories rushed in, moments of his life and mine that I'd chosen to ignore over the years. I'd chosen not to hear the rumors behind his transfer from Special Forces Infantry to R.R.T.S., rumors of teammates caught and tortured and an entire village, innocents and enemies alike, razed to the ground by the force of Asher's fury. Later, I'd chosen not to see the knowing looks our teammates had sent my way and his, on that day Sarge and Dallas returned with a body bag... the day Relay had "walked into a bullet."

Now, as Asher's gaze flickered for a moment from the Kid to me and lingered on my shoulder, I could not ignore the way my near-brother's eyes went hard at the sight of the bandages I no longer needed. I knew, deep down in the pit of my stomach, that my presence would only, indeed was already, fueling his descent to madness. His need to protect had shifted into a need to punish, a need for vengeance.

There were no words that could stop the violence that he was about to commit. I could warn, could preach, could scream at him that the Kid's defiance did not make him the same as Jacob, that this "insubordination" was needed, was mercy not madness. I could give Asher any of those words, but the outcome would still be a body on the floor.

I knew all of this in the space between heartbeats.

In the beat after, as Kid gave a final pointed denial of our leader's orders, as Sarge (he would be Sarge now; I could not afford to see Asher now) began to squeeze the trigger, I moved. I surged forward, sliding in close to force the barrel to shift as he fired, sending the bullet away from its intended fatal path. There was still a yelp of pain behind me, but none of the death-filled silence I'd feared.

Sarge's face all but roared his frustration and betrayal, and he pushed forward to force me out of his way. To both our surprise, I stood firm. For a moment, everyone around us stood as frozen as we were, stunned by the resistance of the last person they'd expect to stand up to Sarge physically.

Then, I heard Sam and John move behind me, heard the stillness of John remaining at my back, heard the rustle as Sam dropped softly to her knees beside the gasping Kid. Through the dual scents of intoxicating citrus from the twins and the stench of rot from the man before me, I scented out the tang of newly spilled blood. My mind coolly calculated the amount to likely be a flesh wound only. His arm probably judging by the angle of the shot, I mused, my eyes still locked on Sarge. His jaw clenched, and the gun drifted down to center on my chest. This time I felt, more than heard John's deliberate lifting of his own weapon to aim past me, covering Sarge.

Sarge breathed in and out deeply, panting with the rage I could tell he was not trying to suppress.

"I need soldiers. I only... need... soldiers." There was a sharp fearful breath behind me, and I reached back to pull Sam to her feet with my left hand; my strong shoulder now bearing the weight without a twinge. Hesitant footsteps came past Sarge, and then Duke was beside me. He and Kid, his right arm wrapping in a hasty bandage, then slid back out of the line of fire, Sam shielded behind them.

"You need to let this go, Sarge." John's voice was carefully calm. "He's just a kid. It's his first mission. Angel was right to stop you." John eased up to stand shoulder to shoulder with me, his weapon still steady. "You know that, Sarge. You know you're outta line."

Sarge only sneered, his face making his opinion of that statement easy to see. I felt my heart sink, the only possible outcomes of this stand off flashing through my brain. I would only be able to protect one of them, and I already knew who I'd chosen. Imperceptibly, I shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet, preparing for the lunge I'd need to shove John out of Sarge's fire. Then the sound of a gun being cocked behind me sent that preparation down the drain. Along with everyone else, I half turned to see Pinky leveling the pistol Mac had given him.

"Drop 'em. Both of you. I don't care if you shoot each other, but I'm not about to be killed by some psycho fucking soldier." There was a beat of shock from all of us, and then I tensed as a wave of stench far more nauseating than Sarge's swept into the room. A massive form appeared behind Pinky only a moment later. My eyes widened, and from the sudden fear on Pinky's face, I couldn't have been the only one.

"Oh shit. There's something behind me, isn't there?"

With a roar, the monster attacked, and the room exploded into motion. John lunged for Pinky only a moment too late, but that was enough for the monster to strike, grabbing the helpless man and using him and the chair as a weapon. It swung, and the wheels smacked into John, slamming him headfirst into the wall. Part of my mind shrieked in fury at the sight, but the rest of me went silent and steady.

My hands never trembled as I pulled the handgun from my hip holster, the one I'd damn near forgotten in the pain and fear and confusion. Sarge, Duke, and Kid were already shooting at the thing, and I joined them, firing at it as it roared in fury and retreated down the hallway. Sarge took off after it, and I followed him, my legs churning out speed until I'd almost passed him. Kid followed, and the part of my mind that focused only on John heard him a few steps behind, as well. That gave me strength, and I pulled a half step ahead of Sarge as we came through a nanowall and into another corridor. Then a terrible sound filled my ears, and I slid to a halt, grabbing Sarge as he moved to go on.

"Listen!" He did and his eyes widened in horror. Kid and John slid though the nanowall behind us, and as one Sarge and I reached out the stop them. "Listen," I told them, and they did, taking in the din of shuffling, running feet and gibbering voices sounding down the corridor toward us. Sarge and I shared a long look, and then the leader of him took hold.

"Fall back," he ordered, voice steady. "Fall back, back through the nanowall!" We did, running back through the safety of the nanowall as the infected masses came into view.

"Close it!" I called back, hoping Sam or Duke might be able to hear. Instead, they stood on the wrong side, out of reach of the button. It was Sarge who reached out in between firing round after round at the approaching hoard. It was Sarge who slammed down with a heavy fist, smashing the button into the console far too hard. I didn't need to seen the sparks to know he'd made a terrible mistake.

"It's not closing!" Kid yelled, panic clear on his face though his hands stayed steady on his weapon. He was right, it wasn't. Not completely anyway. It flickered: sections closing and opening with no discernible pattern.

Then the hoard reached us, and in my mind, time seemed to slow as I took in the scene. Sarge and John kept firing and shouting obscenities while Kid covered Sam in the corner as she tried desperately to find some code on the keypad that might close the door, and Duke stood guarding our flank, standing over a grating that-

I leaped, and real time slammed back into me, as I landed, shoving Duke free of the pair of claws that had closed sickeningly around his ankles. He yelled in pain, and from the corner of my eye I could see blood already welling out of the slashes in his boots. I fired into the grate, feeling a snarl curling my lips back as I did. I cry of pain behind me had me turning again, and the snarl turned to shock as Sarge was pulled through the nanowall.

"Fall back! Goddammit, fall back!" My voice hoarse from screaming in rage, I kept firing through the wall, willing it to close as Kid and Sam half dragged Duke back down the hall behind us. Then it closed with a snap, and I heard the sharp ping of a ricochet and John grunted out in pain. I reached for him, but he pushed me ahead of him down the hall. "Go, dammit, go!"

We ran in what was far more a panicked flight than a controlled retreat. Ahead, the others turned into a doorway, and we slid in behind them, taking great heaving breaths. Sam slammed and locked the door, and for a moment we all let ourselves sang against whatever surface was handy. We were safe, but for how long?

**So we are off and running! There are just a few chapters so hang in there for the finish! BTW, I have a question: what should come next? The Prequel as our heroine becomes the Angel we all know, or the Sequel with it's StarTrek Reaper!Bones angsty goodness? Or should I just alternate chapters of both? lol Let me know my dears!**


	13. Another Man Down

**Did I mention I am gonna try to keep up the pace of a chapter every weekish or so? Cuz seriously, I intend to. We're so close to getting this finished that I can practically taste. I mean really! NEWay, here's the next chapter, all lovely and betafied. I hope ya like it!!**

**Chapter 13:** "**Another Man Down" or "Faking Control With the Best of Them"**

It was the sound of screeches down the hall, a sound I knew I shouldn't be able to hear, that pushed me into motion.

"We've gotta block the door. The nanowall didn't hold."

Thankfully no one questioned how I knew; they just moved with me, grabbing whatever they could carry and carting it over to pile against the wall. Even Duke, his ankles still bleeding, managed to carry one or two before sinking to the floor with a wince.

"Sam?" I nodded toward Duke, and she nodded before striding over to do what first aid she could with the limited supplies we had. With two porters down, I picked up the slack and found myself hefting a load I'd never have been able to carry pre-C24, but after a moment of waiting for anyone to notice, I just shrugged slightly to myself and continued. There were a surprising number of things to carry after all. I'd only taken a bare moment to glance around as John and I pelted inside to safety, but I took the time to do so now as I stacked box after crate after spool of wiring and so on. It seemed to be an odd cross between a storage unit and a server room, with a splash of janitor's closet just for good measure. Strange though it was, I just hoped that somewhere in all that crap we might find something to even up the odds of 4 Marines and a scientist to the hoards of infected outside that door.

Barricading the door didn't take long enough to keep my thoughts occupied. John and I hefted a last pair of spools to the top of the pile and then leaned heavily against our handiwork. Something was tugging at my attention, something I felt I should be noticing, but with my mind racing, I just couldn't focus on what it might be.

"You've been hit. Oh God..." Sam's horrified voice told me what I'd missed, and I felt my legs go weak as John sagged beside me. I lurched to support some of his weight as he crashed to the floor, and had to bite my lip to keep from keening in rage at the sight of the gut shot John had managed to keep from me.

"God how did I miss that?" I tried to keep pressure on it, though I knew it was damn near useless. From the clammy feel of his skin, he'd been all but gushing blood under his vest. "Dammit, John why didn't you tell me how bad it was?"

"Same reason you didn't tell me." He shot me a look that had just a hint of the condescending bastard I'd known when I first joined R.R.T.S., the John who'd I'd butted heads with on more than one occasion. "No time to fix it. No time to..." I groped for his pulse and found it thready and fading as I watched. Sam dropped down beside me, and dug into John's pockets for his medical supplies. His eyes tracked her carefully.

"Listen to me, Sam. It's important. When they come through, you stay behind them. Stay safe. Stay safe..."

"John, baby, stay with me, OK? You gotta stay awake." I rubbed his hand in between mine, trying to give him some warmth. My eyes dropped to Sam's hands as she filled a syringe with a vial I hadn't noticed her pulling out. Our eyes met, and the knowledge of what she was about to do hung in the air between us. I flickered my gaze from her brother and back, and then as something told me my lover would become no more of a monster than I was, I nodded to her.

"What's that?" John had finally noticed the needle, and I scrambled to come up with an answer. Sam just went with the truth.

"It's C-24. It's from Carmack's lab." I braced myself as John shied away, near losing his balance against the wall as he did so.

"No. No, forget it." I clenched my hand around his, forcing him to look at me.

"John, it will save you. You're... Dammit, you're bleeding to death, baby." He stared at me, pain and a hint of betrayal in his eyes. "Please, let us do this." He shook his head, and glanced from me to Sam.

"I've done some bad things." Sam's gaze was steady, holding all the conviction that had been missing when I was injected.

"I know you." Her voice was just as firm, but John only closed his eyes in defeat.

"You don't know me. You don't know." I wanted to break in and try to reassure him, but something told me this was a moment between brother and sister that needed to happen. So, though I never let go of his hand, I held my tongue as she replied to him.

"You're my brother. I know you." There was a hint of a smile on her face as she moved to perform the injection.

"Wait..." He said my name and half turned to look at me, tugging his hand out of mine. He fumbled his handgun out of his holster, gesturing with it from his chest to his temple. "If I turn into one of those demons... One through the heart, one through the head. Don't you hesitate, OK?" His eyes pleaded with me, and I closed mine block out the pain in them.

"She won't have to." My eyes opened at that, and I saw Sam reach out to tugged the weapon down. I stroked his cheek softly, and saw a glimpse of hope flicker in his eyes as he turned to watch Sam. Then, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, I felt him sag further. I let him, sliding over carefully as he sank bonelessly to the ground, his head cushioned on my thigh.

"I won't have to," I whispered, stroking his hair softly. "I won't have to." I couldn't have said who I was reassuring more, him or me.

Someone cleared their throat, and I shot my head up to stare at Kid and Duke. In the face of John bleeding out by my side, I'd forgotten they were even in the room. Their faces were by turns speculative and fearful, and I groaned a little inside at the thought of trying to answer either expression. I closed my eyes for a moment, contemplating my choices. After that brief pause, I opened them again to study the pair of my teammates and Sam, who had returned to Duke's side. First deal with the fear, I told myself. Then allow them a little levity. I tilted my head toward the bandages wrapped around Duke's ankles.

"How bad is it?" He winced, but Sam didn't look as concerned as he did, which I took to be a good sign. I knew first hand that she couldn't hide her horror at an actual death wound.

"The claws tore him up pretty badly, but I was able to get the bleeding stopped and the wounds stitched up as much as I can. As far as the muscles and tendons, I just don't have the knowledge to gauge them." I nodded, knowing it was true. Either Duke would heal fine, or he might come out of this a cripple. Assuming he actually came out of this. Assuming any of them did. I slid John's head off my lap gently, and checked his pulse again. It was fading fast, and I had to force myself not to clutch at him. His fate was out of my hands; I had to focus on the others. I pushed to my feet to cross the few steps to Duke, and sank down to double check the bandages. As I leaned in and ran my hands carefully over the gauze, I gagged. Like Sarge, like the thing that had taken Pinky, Duke just smelled wrong to me. I backed up again, and shook my head to clear the scent out of my mouth. What the hell was up with my sense of smell going so bizarre? I ignored the baffled looks on Sam and Duke's face and turned to Kid.

"Let me check your arm." He nodded, and I scooted over to pull the bandage away and prod at the wound. I was right: it wasn't that bad at all. It was nasty as far as grazes went, but lucky for him, it was only a graze. As I re-wrapped it with a small smile for that one bit of good luck, I breathed in and out as something seemed to wash Duke's scent away. I blinked and focused on it. The Kid smelled much like Sam and John had. It was fainter than Sam's had been, but it was still there, the fresh clean scent wafting to me teasingly. It took only a moment for the knowledge to sink in. "Ho-ly shit," I muttered. Was it really that simple? I brought my own wrist up to my nose and sniffed in. I didn't smell any different to me, but really would I? I didn't know. I couldn't deny the picture my mind was piecing together for me though. I looked slowly from Kid to Sam, studying them carefully.

"You can't be infected." Sam looked at me quizzically.

"How can you know?" I shook my head, not sure I wanted to explain the lemony freshness theory. It sounded ridiculous in my head; I could only imagine how stupid it would sound out loud.

"I just do. You and the Kid, you can't be turned."

"They can't, huh?" I flicked my gaze to Duke to see him shaking his head in defeat. Sam noticed, and reached for his hand.

"Duke, you-"

"No, it's OK. I get it." His eyes were every bit as broken as I expected and I opened my mouth to tell him that it didn't mean everything he thought it did.

As I did though, my heartbeat stuttered to a halt in my chest, and I clutched at it. I gasped in pain and shock, and slowly turned to look over at the motionless form in the corner. John was dead. After a moment, my heartbeat kicked back on, though it was slow and almost sullen in my chest. I didn't let myself go to him, didn't dare. I closed my eyes to compose myself, telling myself over and over that he wouldn't, couldn't' stay dead. Goat hadn't, right? It wasn't as comforting as I wanted it to be, but it was the best I had. Eyes still closed, I pushed to my feet. No more wasting time; I needed to get my shit together, and I needed to do it now. I opened my eyes, and after a long look exchanged with Sam, I strode over to the small sink and mirror that had convinced me the room was part janitor's closet.

"Alright, listen up, men," I called stripping off my gloves and the vest as I did. A part of me sighed in sorrow are the realization that I'd sounded more than a little like Asher. That was fine by me; right now, I needed to be every bit the leader he had been for me. "Number one: those things outside _will_ get in here. That's only a matter of time." Still speaking, I grabbed a few paper towels and wet them down before swiping them inside my vest, cleaning as much of the blood off as I could. That done I tossed it to Sam, who caught it with a look of distaste. "Number two: John _will_ wake up, but if they come in first, they'll try to kill him. Just like they will try to kill you," I nodded at the Kid, "and you." This time I nodded at Sam. "Put the vest on, Sam. It's not much, but it might at least deflect a set of claws. It's better than nothing." I stripped off the sleeves of my coverall, and tied them roughly around my waist.

"Angel, look, what the hell are you thinking, girl? You're injured and-" I reached up and pulled the bandages on my shoulder off with one firm yank. The unbroken skin on my shoulder had Duke speechless.

"They were hampering my range of motion," I said quietly, waiting for understanding to come to him. It did after a moment, and I tried not to cringe at the fear that came along with it.

"You're one of them, aren't ya?" Kid's head shot up at me, and he stared in dismay.

"Wait, she's what? She can't be one of them... I mean she's still..."

"Human?" I finished quietly. "Not exactly. Not anymore. But right now that's not important, guys." I grabbed another paper towel and mopped the blood Sam had missed from my back and shoulder, wanting, needing to wash it away. "All it means is that I'll be a helluva lot harder to kill. That's a good thing," I told them firmly. "We need all the help we can get right now." I tossed the bloody towel into a nearby trash can and turned my hands on my hips. "Kid, how much firepower we got?" He stuttered a moment, but then managed to answer.

"Umm, a couple rifles, th-three with John's. I got my.. wait shit. Only two rifles. I left one back in the Ark chamber. Shit, I'm sorry, Angel, I-"

"What else?" I prodded, breaking in. There wasn't time for self-incrimination. He swallowed and went on.

"I got my two minis, but only a few clips left. We got each of our handguns too. Plus however many clips for those. That's it, though." I mulled the numbers over as I moved to the door to listen to the screeching on the other side. It was definitely getting louder.

"It'll have to be enough. Sam, you know more about this place, is there any other way out of this room, you think?" She shook her head slowly, looking contrite though it was really something I already knew. "Thought so." I thought for a moment, but kept coming back to the same realization. "I have to go out there." I hadn't realized I'd said it out loud until the others' yelling at me told me otherwise. "Look," I tried to talk over them, then gave up and shouted. "Enough!" In the silence, I looked each of them in the eye, willing them to listen. "Look. This is what we have to do. We'll leave the barricade mostly in place, with just enough room for me to get to the door. I'll need one of you ready to open and close it fucking quickly behind me so-"

"I'm coming with you." Sam's defiant voice had me stuttering to a halt. She raised her chin, daring me to argue. "You said it yourself, I can't be infected."

"Sam, you can be killed though, why-" She cut Duke off just as firmly as she'd done to me.

"I know that, I'm not stupid. At this point, we all might die. I can't be helpless and wait for it." She shrugged. "Give me a gun, I guess. But I _am_ going with you, Angel." For a moment she looked worn. "He's my brother. I need to buy him as much time as I can." I studied her, ignoring Duke and Kid's protests. After a moment, I shook my head and sighed.

"You are definitely his sister. Stubborn little bitches, the both of you." I smirked wryly. "You'd follow me out whether I said yes or not. Guess I better arm you then, huh?" She smiled back slowly.

"Guess you better."

It took a bit of scrambling to figure out which weapon needed to go where. I left the rifles with Duke and John. Duke was the only one of us who could be infected, and I knew he'd need as much firepower as possible to keep the infected from reaching him. Plus, that left John that much more protected. Kid and Sam each took one of his semi-autos, and split his clips between them. Sam had protested, apparently thinking she'd handle a pistol better, but I didn't back down. I knew first hand that the kick from a pistol could beat the shit out of the weaker wrists we females were stuck with, and besides, the bullet out of a pistol wasn't going to do much damage unless it was fired in exactly the right place.

And at this point, I was the only one who was going to be able to pull off that kind of accuracy. For that reason, I was carrying all four of the handguns, loaded and ready. I stuffed the few extra clips for them in my belt pockets, trying desperately to keep my hands steady. It was time.

"Alright, let's get those crates out of the way. Sam, once we get through, you stay between me and a wall at all times, you understand me?" She shook her head.

"You'll be in the way... what if I hit you?" I cocked my head and grinned crookedly over my shoulder as Kid and I cleared a path.

"My cells should divide 50 times faster, remember? Just avoid the head and the heart, and I have a feeling I'll be just fine." She nodded reluctantly. Kid finished clearing the tiny path to the door and I squeezed through with Sam right behind me. Kid wedged his way over to the panel and licked his lips nervously.

"Ready?" I allowed myself one last look over my shoulder to where John lay. He _would _wake up. I wouldn't allow myself to think otherwise. Then I gripped the pair of handguns I was holding much too tight, and with a quick nod to Sam, I turned back to Kid.

"Do it." Then the doors slid open, and Sam and I barreled through, and there was no more time for looking back.


	14. Final Battles

**Not gonna bother with too much of an A.N. this time around: just gonna let you dive into the last chapter!**

**Chapter 14 "Final Battles" or "Too Close to a Wall for Comfort"**

We surged head on into a crowd of the infected. I shoved through, breaking a hole for Sam to follow without quite as much danger. Then, we just ran flat out, as fast as Sam was capable of running. The thunder of footsteps behind us told me the infected had taken our bait. It was a good sign that our plan was working. Now we just needed to survive our plan. We rounded a corner and found ourselves facing another group of infected, apparently drawn by the noise to their prey. I shoved Sam back behind me and opened fire with both pistols at the hoard in front of us. Behind me, I heard the racket of the mini spewing out bullets at the group to our rear. I smiled viciously; she was guarding our six. Damned if I wouldn't' make a Marine out of her yet. I opened my eyes wide to take in as much of our surroundings as I could, and kept firing slowly, making sure each bullet counted. I wasn't sure if I was doing near the damage to our opponent's that Sam was, but at least I could be sure that none of my kills were going to come back to life.

I went through a solid clip in both pistols and dropped one, freeing my hand to re-load the other. I took the half second pause to assess the situation. By my estimate, I'd cleared enough of a path in front of us that I thought we might be able to start running again. But then, I heard Sam scream behind me. I spun to see one of the infected, this one almost done with its transformation, clawing at Sam's chest, trying to find some purchase against the vest. I didn't stop the think about why she wasn't firing, I just lunged. I grabbed the monster around the neck with my free hand and flipped it over my head and down the corridor. Quite a ways down the corridor. The was a moment of quiet as Sam and I, and the monsters behind us, stared at the body I'd just tossed with ease.

"So, super strong, huh?" Sam's voice was rough from shouting, but I could still make out the slight lilt of wry humor.

"Apparently so. Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled her with me as I started to run again, down the passageway that I'd cleared only moments ago. She pulled back as we turned a corner, and ducked into a side hallway.

"Wait a sec. I'm out." Realizing why she hadn't opened fire, I swiftly took the mini from her and released the spent cartridge. She handed me another and I loaded it for her.

"Ready?" I didn't wait for her to answer, just darted out of the opening, turning to cover our rear as she followed me. I looked around trying to figure out our position, but managed to come up clueless. I snarled at myself. Apparently super intelligent _still _did not mean you were guaranteed anything like a sense of direction. "Shit. Sam, which way to the Ark? We might be able to find the other rifle."

"This way." This time she took point, and I had to give her credit for sheer fearlessness. We met one or two infected as we ran, but she mowed them down without so much as pausing. We finally turned a corner I actually recognized. I was fairly sure the smarmy man had led the team through here from the elevator. It seemed like it had been years since I'd come this way, instead of mere hours. Either way, I was glad to feel at least some sense of where I was. "The Ark's just around the corner. Come..."

Sam stumbled to a stop, her voice trailing off as she stared at something just out of my line of sight. I caught up to her, and came to a halt as well, maneuvering to place myself in front of her. To place myself between her and Sarge, who stalked forward from where he was looming in the shadows, a big fucking gun hefted in his arms as if it weighed next to nothing. I felt a snarl trying to curl my lips again as I surveyed him. The scent of infection had only gotten worse, and as he came closer my eyes locked onto the bite mark on his neck.

"Angel. Here you are." His voice was almost jovial, but something about it made my hackles raise. He took a few steps to the side, and I shifted with him, keeping Sam behind me. "I was looking for you. Quarantine's almost over. Just one last little problem to handle and then we're home free. You... ready to go home?" I didn't answer, just dropped the pistol I held and reached back to where the last two, the two belonging to John and I, were tucked into my belt. I had a feeling I'd need both if I wanted to take down Sarge on my own. He noticed the motion and cocked his head in confusion, and I almost cried out at how familiar that motion was. He looked so much like Asher with a puzzle, but I could not allow myself to feel any nostalgic affection. The confusion slowly hardened into rage, and I held both handguns at my side, ready to fire if I needed to.

"Now, now, Angel. You don't want to do that."

"No I don't. But I will if you make me." His eyes narrowed at my response, and I steeled myself for what was about to happen.

"You want to move, Angel." He lifted the weapon in his hands purposefully and aimed it just past me. I tensed as I realized he had it trained on Sam, and I shifted again, putting myself firmly in his line of fire. "I said... Move." I shook my head, feeling a sense of deja vu.

"No. John wants her safe. I'll keep her safe." I tightened my grip on my weapons as Sarge's shoulders began to heave with the great gasps of air he was hissing in and out.

"John... wants _her _safe. And you'll do it... for him." His eyes widening, and I swallowed at the sheer madness reflected there. "What about family. Angel. You do nothing. For your _family_?" With a roar of rage and fury, Sarge swung the massive gun like a baseball bat. I cried out for Sam to run, then the heavy barrell smashed into me and sent me flying. I landed with a horrifying crunch, most of the bones in my back and body snapping from the force of the blow. I shrieked in pain, and unable to fight any longer, I blacked out and went limp.

"-am?...." A voice broke through the blackness, and I flickered back to consciousness like the picture on an old television; parts of me felt fuzzy, and sound was echoing strangely in my ears. I moaned, or thought I did, I couldn't have been sure though.

"......" My eyes blinked open and closed. That was my name... wasn't it? Someone was calling my name. John? Yes, _John _was calling my name. I flickered my eyes open again, trying to gather my strength to call out to him. I pushed weakly against whatever I was laying against struggling to free myself. Was I _in_ a fucking _wall?_ That wasn't acceptable, was it? Damned if I knew.

In hopes of shaking the cobwebs clear, I shook my head slightly. It was a mistake. Some part of my body must of come in contact with the sparking wires around me, wires that I hadn't noticed until they turned on me. Jolt after jolt of electricity zapped through me. The nauseating scent of burnt hair and flesh clung to my nose, and I would have gagged if I'd had the ability to do so. In the midst of the pain, I tried to pull free, but that only seemed to make it all worse. There was a sickening grinding in my back and limbs as bones tried and failed to knit themselves together over and over again; the agonizing shocks somehow throwing my new found ability to heal completely out of whack. I clung stubbornly to consciousness for what felt like days before I finally gave in and passed out once more.

"-ait...-ngel!" This time I almost hated to wake; at least when I was out cold, I didn't hurt so badly. But someone was calling my name again, and something in me felt obligated to try to answer. "Angel? Du.... her out!" I shook my head faintly. Someone was going to get hurt if they tried to pull me out. They couldn't... "wat... 'our hands!"

I felt someone tugging at me, and then with a lurch I was pulled completely from the wall around me. I landed with a whimper. I felt hands trying to help me up, and I let them pull me as I cringed at the sense of my body finally healing. The pain of putting me back together was almost worse than my injuries had been in the first place. I moaned as the healing finally stopped, and I pulled my eyes open to see Kid hovering over me while Sam and Duke looked on worriedly, leaning weakly against each other. I breathed out, trying to form words.

"Wha... wha happened?" Sam shook her head.

"No time, Angel. John... he went after Sarge." I closed my eyes again as the knowledge sunk in. Sarge was infected, and liable to be stronger than either John or myself.

"Sonuvabitch." I took a deep breath and pushed myself to my feet, shaking off Kid's hands. I braced myself against the wall instead, and looked around. "We're... we're near the elevator?" I looked to Sam for confirmation and she nodded. "Good... go. Get out. Head... head to the surface."

"You're sure you're OK?" I let out a pained laugh.

"No, but I'll deal." I looked at Kid. "Keep 'em safe. I'm counting on you." He gulped, then squared his shoulders and nodded. "Go."

I turned away, hoping Sam would take that as a sign to finally leave. I looked around, orienting myself and began to slowly walk in the direction of John's scent. Behind me, I heard the slow halting shuffle of a single man supporting two injured. Giving a last prayer that they, at least, might survive this hell, I picked up my pace to a slow trot, avoiding the bodies at my feet as I could. I kept as silent as I could, not wanting to give my position away to Sarge or any surviving infected. I tried not to think about just how helpless I was likely to be if I actually came across one of those infected. I'd lost the last of my handguns somewhere between Sarge opening fire on Sam and I and waking up in a fucking wall. I didn't have time to look for it either.

Up ahead the unmistakable sound of blows landing on flesh drew me on, and I slipped from a corridor into the shadows of the Ark chamber, my eyes wide at the sight of John and Sarge trading blows back and forth in a flurry of unrestrained violence. The speed would have been beyond my comprehension even an hour before. And, hell, the strength behind their blows was easily going to knock me to pieces. I bit my lip and waited for an opening.

To my horror, John seemed to be coming out on the losing end. Unable to watch any longer as Sarge threw him into a wall, I lunged from my hiding spot and slammed into Sarge, knocking him back a pace. He snarled incredulously at the sight of me alive and well, and I hauled back and punched him square in the jaw. My hand screamed as the knuckles broke and healed. I knew I'd barely bruised the fucker, but it was enough to distract him from John. My lover leapt to his feet and moved in with a brutal kick to Sarge's ribs, knocking _him_ into a wall this time.

I didn't give him the chance to recover; I pressed forward raining blows and kicks with as much speed as I could muster. Most of the blows landed, but Sarge managed to grip my knee on the last and tossed me clear across the chamber. With a roar, John surged in to my defense, twisting around to pull Sarge into a chokehold. Then in a lightning fast move even I almost couldn't follow, Sarge freed himself. Holding John with a crushing body to body bind, he reached over and unwound the wire that had been wrapped about his hand. I gasped as I realized what he was doing, and threw myself to my feet. I wasn't quite fast enough, though. Before I could reach the pair, Sarge had stabbed out with the sharp end of the wire toward John's face. John blocked, but it went clean through his hand, and I shrieked in outrage at the pain I knew he must feel. I lunged at Sarge, but he shrugged me off with little effort. I could tell I was reaching the end of even my C-24 increased strength.

John's eyes were flashing from Sarge's face to mine to room around us.

"The Ark!" He called, and my eyes shot to the panel that had come to life as they rolled across it. It was just out of John's reach, I realized. I took the few steps to the panel at a run, and smacked my hand into the operating switch. Sarge roared as behind him the Ark pooled into being. He tried to pull away, but I saw John had the wire gripped fast around his own hand. I cringed, but couldn't bring myself to look away.

"Ark travel in 5...4..." John suddenly pushed free from the wall where Sarge had pinned him, and then spun in a smooth slide that pulled Sarge's feet out from under him. As the larger man's feet left the ground, the Ark's gravity pulled him up and into it.

"John!" I screamed, terrified John intended to sacrifice himself to kill Sarge. Instead, he ripped his hand free of the wire with a rough yank, and Sarge was sucked into the Ark.

There was a beat of silence, and then John turned to face me, a wry smile on his face. He bent and tugged an ST grenade from the belt one of them had tossed on to the floor at some point during their battle. He took a breath, then popped the top, and pressed the button.

"As the Kid said," he said as he tossed the grenade into the Ark easily. "Go to hell." I waited until the automated voice announced Ark travel was complete, then switched the system back off.

"Goodbye, Ash." We stood a moment in silence, our eyes both locked on where our leader had stood last. Then John turned to face me slowly, seeming almost hesitant as his eyes ran up my body to my face. I held my breath at the painful look in his eyes as he took step after faltering step to me. Finally arriving in front of me, he traced a hand down the side of my face.

"He said he killed you." I shook my head slowly, not daring to close my eyes.

"I'm still here." He let out a long sigh and leaned down to press his face into my neck and wrap his arms around me tightly. I sank into the embrace, holding him just a close and drinking in the scent of him. I smiled softly as I realized it had somehow returned to his own familiar scent. We gave ourselves another moment, and then he spoke, his voice holding a hint of wonder.

"Our hearts are beating together." I smiled against his shoulder.

"You noticed that, huh? I like it." He pulled back only far enough to reach my lips and kissed me softly, agreeing without words. He leaned back, and searched my face.

"Let's go." I nodded, and we began to pick our way back to the elevator, John leaning down to grab my pack as we passed it. We didn't have to wait, and I took that to be a sign that the others had safely exited on the other end. I stepped through the door with a sigh of relief, only to gasp as my knees suddenly buckled, the last shreds of my strength finally used up. John caught me before I could hit the floor, then lifted me the rest of the way in and hit the button to send us up. Then he turned to me, demanding an explanation.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I lifted my face to meet his worried gaze, laughing weakly.

"Jus' tired. Fuck, I'm just done, I think." Shaking his head, he lifted me effortlessly in his arms and cradled me against his chest.

"Next time say something instead of collapsing. Little idiot." I smiled at the familiar exasperation in his voice and curled an arm around his neck. He sighed my name and let his cheek drop to rest against the top of my head, and I nuzzled into him. "Almost home."

**And we have reached the end!**

**The sequel I'm currently working on already has the first chapter up, and is going to be a drabble series "100 Words, 100 Years." It's going to cover roughly the first 100 years after Olduvai. Hopefully you all will like it!**

**By the way, speaking of the magic number 100- did anyone else notice that Handle ID got over 100 reviews???? I'm totally stunned and ridiculously flattered. Thank you all so so much for sticking with me to the end!!**

**And yes, I HAVE started the Prequel "Becoming Angel" and the first chapter should be posted soon! I hope to see all of you over at the other stories in the Angel Verse!**


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